Experts at SophosLabs have detected about 500 million emails containing advice to invest in Prime Time Stores Inc -- an obscure US-listed group -- in a record-breaking example of the "pump-and-dump" spamming technique.
"Pump-and-dump" is when spammers buy shares, orchestrate a spam campaign promoting the company, then wait for a share price to rise before selling their stock for a profit.
"This particular campaign was first detected 24 hours ago in Germany and has caused a 30-per cent rise in spam worldwide compared to typical levels," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Britain-based Sophos.
"This is staggering. It's one of the biggest spam campaigns we've ever seen," he told AFP in a telephone interview.
The US stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, estimated in March that 100 million share-ramping emails were sent every week on average -- a fraction of the number Sophos says it has picked up in the last 24 hours.
The email cites a company press release announcing the opening of shops by Prime Time Stores in Puerto Rico and goes on to say: "Imagine if you had the chance to buy a Wal-Mart franchise in Mexico right when it first opened its doors there and all you needed was a small stake to get in (sic)."
"Hurry, we see this stock starting to make the turn NOW. Big watch in effect for August 8, 2007!".
original message
Philana kasagiannis
show details 8:58 am (3 minutes ago)
B,U,L,L MARKET R_E_PORT!!!
Insider B_u_ying A-l-e-r-t!!!
Tr Date: Friday, Aug 10, 2007
Com: P-R-I_M_E T.I.M.E GROUP INC
Symbol: (P)(R)(T)(H)
Cur Pr: $0.105
Thur Close: Gain (19.32%)
Recomm: S!trong B.u.y/H.o.l.d
DO YOU LOVE T_R-A-D-I-N_G P*ENNY S,T.O,C.K,S?
[P][R][T][H] WILL MOVE LIKE A COMET AND ITS
ONLY GOING TO GET BETTER!
Wat ch this S-U.P-E.RNOVA closely FRIDAY!
No comments:
Post a Comment