Hi malware fighters,
The number of spam that is image spam has increased substantially over the third quarter of 2006. At the moment 40% of the spammers use images to circumvent spam filters. The bulk of these are so-called “pump-and-dump” scams, to forward adverts of promising “short stock”. The idea behind these scan is people buy the stock, while the spammer on the contrary sells them, so you are left with an IOU, while the stock gets criminally manipulated. They run no risks because of a “grandfathering” system that keeps the lid on the real issues.
The spam contains various layers of images, making each message uniquely stand out, and difficult to filter out. Moreover cybercrook-spammers ask firms to be in on the pump and dump scam.
During recent months America was the biggest spammer, followed by China. If you see continent-wise, Asia is the largest “spam relayer”, actually good for 34% of all the spam, followed by Europa with 31,9%. See for details here:
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/11/dirtydozq306.html?_log_from=rss
polonus