Small correction

While the volume is large, it appears the spammers are working through their stockpile of old domainnames. Maybe they are on vaction.

tc

Volume up, but no tricks

It's not clear what is going on. Currently, spam volume is normal, but the pace is erratic. (As an example, one batch may have 300, the next 125.) In addition, it looks like domain names are being thrown out. There is no evidence of hiding the payload by any kind of encoding; just straight plain HTML in most cases. Even URL wrapping has been abandoned.

tc

First note on back to normal

I've noted over the last few days many reports that things have reverted with spam and all things have return to normal (so to speak). The break was nice, but now I can report the volume is back and the tricks remain the same. Just enough to be out of the range of automation.

tc

Volume picking up.

After a major slow down in spam, today marks the second day of spam volume picking up. Notabley, there is very few tricks in the incoming mail. There is a lot of domain dumping. I have noted as many as 8 domains in a single email, but usually 3 to 4. Alot of .com and .cn continue. ".es" which was heavy for the last two weeks is now rolling back. Similarly, ".eu" which as heavy for two weeks is now almost unseen.

tc

The Lastest in Phish Bait

If you see the flowing message in your inbox, its appears they are giving up on the banks. Or just trying an old trick - again.

tc

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Spam slower.

Spam continues to be slower.

Spam slowdown

I've noted a spam slowdown. At first, I noticed a decline in links to EXE files. Now I am noting a reduction in SPAM experiments. This includes hiding a url, letter by letter in an HTML table. This seems to corolate witht the slowdown in other sectors of the American economy. Namely, the reduction in raw materials to Brazil, Russia, India and China. (Labeled, "the drop of the bric" by Jim Crammer of Mad Money on CNBC).

To this I am adding that my spam filters have jumped from 2-4% pass through to 1/2 of 1%. That is to say, usually I have 2-4% of all spam that makes it through the spam filter (given I get every payload marker). It appears that I am catching 99.4% now. I don't think my filters are better, or that I have all their domains, or payoff domains. I should also mention that the penny stock scams have stopped too.

I think in a few weeks we will know the answer.

Glossary

-tc