Thursday, August 16, 2007

Spammers find new ways to slip through

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO - Just when it appeared tech firms had the upper hand against spam, spammers have unleashed new forms of the meddlesome e-mail to trick filters.

Spam in the form of popular PDF e-mail attachments and electronic greeting cards is confounding e-mail security systems and annoying consumers. The recent Storm e-mail virus and several pump-and-dump stock scams are clogging inboxes and snookering consumers into downloading malicious software. And it could get worse as the holidays approach, anti-spam experts say.

The trend illustrates the shifting nature of spam's deceptive packaging. As anti-spam vendors come up with solutions, new versions pop up. The most common spam - which uses images to avoid the detection of spam filters - is quickly fading because of advances in anti-spam technology.

But spam in PDFs, non-existent in May, now accounts for 8% of unsolicited commercial e-mail. Last week, a PDF promoting a pump-and-dump scam contributed to a 30% increase in overall spam. It was sent from compromised PCs turned into spam-spreading bots, security firm Sophos says.

Faux electronic-greeting cards, containing links to viruses, have also picked up. Since mid-July, security firm Postini has blocked about 800 million copies of Storm, an e-mail virus masquerading as a greeting card. "It's a cat-and-mouse game, and PDFs are the latest twist," says Adam Swidler, senior marketing manager at Postini.

Spammers also are beginning to use Excel and Zip files.

As spam evolves, from text in the body of e-mail to images embedded in attachments, it has become more difficult for filters to identify, says Tom Gillis, co-founder of IronPort Systems, a security firm acquired by Cisco Systems (CSCO). "There is a social engineering element to this. People are more likely to open a PDF file or Excel document, which are more trusted."

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Friday, August 10, 2007

PEARL DIAMOND COMPANY - Representative Needed

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am Mr.Yeo Weng Zheng , Managing Director of NATIONAL
PEARL DIAMOND
GEM & JEWELLERY IMPORT & EXPORT CORP,(CNPDGJ IMPORT& EXPORT
CORP). We are into diamond gem and jewellery export into
the Canada/America
(South America)and Europe.
We are searching for representatives who can help us
establish a medium of getting to our customers in the
Canada/America and Europe as well as making payments through
you to us. Please if you are interested in transacting
business with us we will be glad.
It's upon this we seek your honest cooperation and
assistance to establish a cordial relationship with our
clients please contact us for more information. Subject to
your satisfaction you will be given the opportunity to
negotiate your mode of which we will pay for your services
as our representative in Canada/America and Europe.Your
Payment would
be 10% of every payment transaction you assist us with.

All you need to do for us is to just assist us in receiveing
our payment from clients in your region, if you have any
further way of assisting us kindly let me know.

If you are interested please write to this
Email:pearldiamond@myway.com


Thanks In advance,
Mr.Yeo Weng Zheng

Managing Director,
UK NATIONAL PEARL DIAMOND GEM &
JEWELLERY IMPORT &EXPORT CORP.
Email:walterhank01@yahoo.com

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Scams..