Spam Omelet. They pull data from the global collection of email addresses that Bitdefender has set up to capture spam (honeypots) and report on such things as common words used in Spam. This image is an example.
The actual techniques that spammers use to get their victims to open an email are well worth studying, if not for what they reveal about the human psyche then for the latest marketing tips and tricks. BitDefender, the up and coming Anti-virus vendor from Romania has launched a weekly blog on spam called the
The top five words they culled from millions of spam messages are:
1. OFFER
2. LICENSE
3. PRICES
4. HEALTH
5. CHECK
They also report that the typical Spam now leads the recipient to “check out” a link which:
As the user lands on the compromised website, a JavaScript triggers the download of an infected exe impersonating a codec. The executable file is infected with various variants of Trojan.HTML.ZLOB and Trojan.Agent.AKEO, two pieces of malware that install rogue security utilities on the host machines.
They incorrectly characterize the common Russian Bride scam as “extortion”. It is really just one form of the “advance fee scam” family. The lonesome victim pays fees like airfare, visa, etc. and never hears from his virtual love again.
As promised, my toast:
Spam Omelet weekly. I know I will be reading it!
Here is to BitDefender and their war on Spam. May they indeed post the