[www.usatoday.com]

Picture this: A sneakier kind of spam
Posted 7/23/2006 10:44 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — A new strain of spam popping up in e-mail boxes is confounding consumers and corporate security officials.
The spam contains images spouting everything from stock scams to @#$%&, and its volume has more than doubled since April, according to analysis by anti-spam vendor IronPort Systems.

Image-based spam accounts for 21% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005, IronPort says.

Marketers are deploying image-based spam because it is harder to detect than text-based spam, and consumers are more likely to read an e-mail with a picture or graphic, says Craig Sprosts of IronPort.

The newest spam uses technology that varies the content of individual messages — through colors, backgrounds, picture sizes or font types — so they appear to be distinct to spam filters. The spam is delivered to consumers and companies through millions of compromised PCs, called bots.

As a result, the messages are like snowflakes: No two are alike, says Julian Haight, founder of anti-spam organization SpamCop.

The surge in new spam has largely eluded software filters and eaten up space on e-mail systems because each message is more than seven times larger than regular spam, Sprosts says.

Most image-based spam comes in the form of stock scams, which contain the same basic language within a shaded box.

Much of it comes from spam gangs in the USA and Russia, Sprosts says.

Stock scams make up about 20% of spam — about twice the share at the start of the year, IronPort says.

Until last year, image spam was rare. Though it had been around for about four years, spammers lacked the technology to randomize images, says Dmitri Alperovitch of e-mail security company CipherTrust. Before, spammers included a link on e-mail spam to direct recipients to a site containing pictures.

Not anymore. The new spamming tactic is the latest salvo in the battle between junk e-mailers and filter developers. As software gets better at identifying and blocking spam, spammers get smarter at outfoxing software.

"It is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game," Alperovitch says.

---

M1 2020 Mac mini (16G 2T) • Monterey 12.x • Dual 25" Acer 1440p LCDs • M1 2020 13" MBAir (256G 8G) •

Yeah, I've been seeing a lot of msgs w/ taglines that are two or three random words -- the spam filters have lots of trouble w/ that.

Mail seems to handle junk mail pretty good. Even the total image ones.
There is about one or two that actually get through into my inbox every month.

Tugger, do you get them in your home email or sites like hotmail?

Carm

more and more spam seems to be getting through Mail.app's junk filter. Is it image based? I have no idea. Because I don't open emails that come from people whose name I don't recognize. It's as simple as that.

same here.

---

Bryan
______________________________________________________
Mac Mini 2.6 GHz, 16 GB ram Big Sur
MacBook Pro (Early 2008 model) 2.4 GHz, 4 GB ram, 200 GB hard drive/ Mac OS 10.9.1
iPhone XR
Location: Cincinnati

Carm, I use Entourage, combined with Spam Sieve. SS does catch them, and they mainly fall into the Junk folder. It's just that the numbers have increased (about 30 a day), and these picture spam ones make up 80% of them now.

---

M1 2020 Mac mini (16G 2T) • Monterey 12.x • Dual 25" Acer 1440p LCDs • M1 2020 13" MBAir (256G 8G) •

Can't they just mandate the death penalty for spammers? I mean, what's the downside?

tuqqer,I see, I also have seen in increase in spam in my junk folder. Its ridiculous.

rz, the only mail that get through to my inbox is addressed to me in my full name.

The servers hosting the image files in the spam need to be taken down.

Carm

Quote
SeattlePhotog
Can't they just mandate the death penalty for spammers? I mean, what's the downside?

My first hard laugh of the week.

---

M1 2020 Mac mini (16G 2T) • Monterey 12.x • Dual 25" Acer 1440p LCDs • M1 2020 13" MBAir (256G 8G) •

Quote
tuqqer

Quote
SeattlePhotog
Can't they just mandate the death penalty for spammers? I mean, what's the downside?

My first hard laugh of the week.

And it's only Monday!

Quote
tuqqer
Much of it comes from spam gangs in the USA and Russia, Sprosts says.

This was my first laugh of the week...the idea of those evil "spam gangs" terrorizing people.

---

[www.zeemaps.com]

Well, there's your solution: start a turf war between the East Coast and West Coast spam gangs, yo.

I still have a hard time believing that someone would spend money with someone that spammed them. Would you even consider taking out a mortgate with a subject line like: "My forget he decree cotillion" or "beavers receive huge meaty presents Hot and new"?? It's beyond me...

---

- Jack D.




New tasteless sig coming soon!

Jack D, but those beavers... boy do they have good investment stock porfolios.

---

Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

PeterB, it's a well known fact that beavers are hard workers so it would only stand to reason that they would have large portfolios. I'll bet they're friendly beavers too...

---

- Jack D.




New tasteless sig coming soon!