Persistent spammers running pump-and-dump campaigns have resorted to subliminal messages, according to antispam vendor Sophos.
One recent campaign circulated via e-mail contains a GIF animation set to flash 'BUY' every 15 seconds which SophosLabs compares
to subliminal advertising and political campaigns.
A SophosLabs official said that while pump-and-dump campaigns account for about 15% of spam (up 0.8% from January 2005), the
use of GIF images in stock market spam has risen almost 17% since January (18.2%) this year.
SophosLabs senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said the use of animations to circumvent spam filters that identify
character recognition is used globally and in multiple languages.
"Animated graphics are being used in image spam campaigns to try and weave past filters which may be attempting optical character
recognition to decipher the messages that spammers send," Cluley said.
"We have seen image spam being used around the world - not just in English, but languages such as Russian and Italian; it's
likely that more spam will use the technique to try and get past gateway filters.
"These messages try to be subliminal, but it is questionable whether it would subconsciously influence armchair investors
into buying more stock," Cluley said.
SophosLabs' head of technology for Asia Pacific, Paul Ducklin said pump-and-dump campaigns are used because they use the stock
exchange as a legal forum, rather than offering malicious attachments or links, or attempting to gain personal details.
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