Volume XII of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Reportlooks at a variety of trends that were seen in phishing and spam.Although spammers' and phishers' techniques and targets constantlyvary, one thing remains the same: they're trying to make money – andthey're getting better at it.
Phishing attacks targeting financial services remained the mostpopular target than any other sector, making up 79 percent of uniquebrands phished, and 72 percent of all phishing Web sites. The reasonfor this is obvious: phishers want money, and stealing bank account orcredit card information is one of the quickest ways to make it. Andwith credit cards commonly selling for less than ten dollars on theblack market, and bulk rates offered on credit card sales, the phishersneed a lot of them to turn a profit.
In an attempt to get more bang for their buck, phishers have starteddeveloping...
Many types of spam are common, such as email, SMS, splog (blog spam), and snail mailer. Dave Cole discussed these in Spam: It's Not Just for Email. Today, I would like to talk about one that isn't discussed as much because it isn't as common yet: spam in multiplayer online games, or, as I like to call it, "smog".
In recent years many big titles in massive multiplayer online games have been released, and are played by millions of people all over the world. With big groups of players, there are always a few that will pay to get ahead, and spammers know that they can exploit them.
I asked several of my close friends who play online games if they've seen smog messages, and they've all experienced the same thing: offers of gold, items, and quick levels in exchange for payment....
