John Doe, sitting in his office, was scrolling through email in his inbox when he noticed an email with this subject line:
Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
John thought to himself, “Message delivery failed? Did my message to Jane get blocked?” He then proceeded to open the message and found that it was an online pharmacy spam message he had allegedly sent. John is initially puzzled because he never sent that message himself. Soon, he realizes that the message is NDR spam.
Symantec has observed a wave of non-delivery receipt (NDR) attacks over the past month. While this technique is certainly not new, a spike in volume was significant enough for us to take a deeper look. A lot of people are confused about these messages. Where do they come from? What is the purpose?
The June State of Spam Report demonstrates that spammers are utilizing current events to their advantage. The economic slowdown has been at the forefront of current event topics for some time, and is indisputably a hot item for spammers. In May, Symantec observed the continued offers by spammers to avoid home foreclosure. Many of these attempts are directed towards harvesting personal information and not towards helping anyone out of a loan crisis.
Other current events being used by spammers to take advantage of the public include rising gas prices, the economic stimulus package, and recent natural disasters. In the wake of rising gas prices, spammers are offering gas from unusual sources, like your water faucet. Free gas cards and other products aimed at creating gas out of other unusual sources are...
