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Russian Spammers Dialing into Work Three Days a Week 

Oct 08, 2009 03:15 PM

Last week we observed a new Russian spam trend dealing with phone numbers. We have been monitoring spam samples containing phone numbers in the message body—with or without obfuscation. In one of our March ’09 blog posts, we mentioned the use of phone numbers in the headers as well. The phone numbers in those spam samples weren't obfuscated, but recently we have seen spammers introducing special symbols [+*^] between the numbers found in the headers, as shown in the examples below:

russian_spam.jpg
 
Translation:

Subject: highest response rate from Updated databases 7916…
Alert - Newest Databases
Highest response rate

As a routine check for complete Russian spam analysis, we examined the volume of Russian spam for any unusual increase or decrease in the current month. We did not find any significant change in volume, but we discovered an interesting trend. When we looked at the graphs, it showed a pattern in the rise and fall of spam volume. We dug deep into the report in terms of individual days and discovered that number of spam messages sprang up on specific days, and dived downward on others. It got even more interesting when we verified the data for the last three months and found similar results. Russian spam volumes always peaked on the first few days of the week—specifically on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays—and fell on the other days of the week, as illustrated in the graphs below:

russian_graph.JPG

As always, Symantec will continue to monitor and analyze this trend and will provide updates if necessary. Symantec users are protected from this latest spate of spam email, every day of the week!

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