Spammers are profiting from share manipulation by coaxing victims into investing in junk bonds.
The spammers purchase cheap shares (which artificially raises the stock price) and sell them off as victim investment raises
their value further.
Internet security analyst firm Sophoslabs calls the spam technique a "stock, pump and dump campaign" and said it accounts
for about 15% of all spam, up 5% from last year.
Sophoslabs' head of technology for Asia Pacific Paul Ducklin said the campaign is effective because it uses the stock exchange
as a legal forum, rather than offering malicious attachments or links, or attempting to gain personal details.
"The call to action is that you go away and invest in legitimate, legal companies which are totally disconnected from the
malicious spamming," Ducklin said. "There are no malicious links or applications in the e-mails, so the user feels safe."
He said inexperienced users are convinced of the scam's legitimacy when they see the share value rise on the exchange.
"When these junk bonds rise sharply in value it is almost too much of a coincidence to believe they are legitimate," he warns.
Ducklin said that although he has not seen spammers using the ASX (junk bonds are usually de-listed), campaigns are not restricted
by national borders.
"A spammer could live in Venezuela, selling stocks from Canada via a botnet in Israel to customers in Australia," he said.
Users need not be gullible, according to Ducklin. He said spammers steal professional designs and replace minor details to
include the junk bonds and an almost invisible code designed to fool antispam software.
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