In recent weeks, Symantec has observed an increase in messages promoting online casinos, typically offering a cash bonus or VIP treatment. Leisure spam (defined as email attacks offering or advertising prizes, awards, or discounted leisure activities) has accounted for up to 10% of spam globally during early November.
As we reported in the March 2007 State of Spam report, these attacks are often translated into many different European languages in order to maximize the reach of the attack. The URLs are quickly changed from message to message, with a simple directory change for each European language–a French example is shown below. Spammers change the URLs frequently in order to try and stay ahead of URL-based anti-spam filters. Symantec uses more than 20 different filtering technologies in order to ensure comprehensive blocking of spam attacks no matter what techniques spammers employ.
Despite the fact that online gambling in the U.S. has many legal restrictions, most notably the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which made transactions from banks or similar institutions to online gambling sites illegal, this hasn’t stopped spammers from targeting Americans, because clearly the potential size of the market is too large to ignore.Free webhosting URL redirects have been notably used in the spam attacks targeting the U.S. market, presumably not only in an effort to evade spam filters, but also to make it more difficult to track down the hosts of the ultimate destination website.
In both examples shown, the objective of the email is to get the end user to download software running the various games. The software may attempt to steal sensitive information such as login credentials. But don’t be tempted by the offer of seemingly free money. In addition to the fact that a deposit is required in order to play, the terms and conditions state that 25 times the deposit and bonus must be wagered before cashing out, and it’s likely the house will have long won by then.