Sophos, a global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, has announced that it has found spammers using animated graphics to display subliminal messages encouraging investors to buy stocks in "pump-and-dump" stock scam. Spammers have moved to using animated GIFs as an attempt to try and avoid detection by anti-spam products.
In a spam campaign seen by Sophos researchers, an embedded image attempts to artificially inflate the price of shares in a company called Trimax. However, unlike the many other similar scam emails the graphic briefly flashes up a message saying, "BUY!!!" approximately every fifteen seconds.
The "BUY!!!" message is comparable to the subliminal messages that have occasionally been used in advertising and political broadcasts to try and subconsciously influence people.
"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," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "This message tries to be subliminal, but it is questionable whether it would successfully subconsciously influence armchair investors into buying more stock. Advanced anti-spam solutions, like those produced by Sophos, are capable of protecting against spam which uses these tricks."
Pump-and-dump stock campaigns work by spammers purchasing stock at a cheap price and then artificially inflating its price by encouraging others to purchase more often by spamming "good news" about the company to others. The spammers then sell off their stock at a profit. Sophos experts report that pump-and-dump stock campaigns account for approximately 15% of all spam, up from 0.8% in January 2005.
This year has seen a sharp rise in the amount of spam containing embedded images, which has risen sharply from 18.2% in January to more than 35% by September. By using images instead of text, messages are able to avoid detection by some anti-spam filters that rely on the analysis of textual spam content.
"We have seen image spam being used around the world - not just in English, but languages such as Russian and Italian too," continued Cluley. "It's likely that more and more spam will use the technique to try and get past gateway filters, and computer users should ensure their mailstreams are defended by products which can effectively combat it."
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution, which can defend against the threats of spam, spyware and viruses.
Sophos (www.sophos.com) is a world leader in integrated threat management solutions, protecting against known and unknown malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam and policy abuse for business, education and government. Sophos's reliably engineered, easy-to-operate products protect more than 35 million users in more than 150 countries.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
