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Cloudmark Reveals Spammers Toll on Package Delivery Firms

E-mail Security Firm, Cloudmark reveals a hike in the inflow of spam e-mail masquerading renowned package delivery firms with the beginning of the holiday season targeting innocent customers.

The firm also reports of a different spam campaign taking advantage of the holiday season UPS "Package Not Delivered". This campaign is targeted to the online shoppers who become worried of the news of inability to deliver their purchases. The content of these e-mails are designed tactfully and so that they seem to be coming from legitimate shipping outlets, such as United Parcel Service (UPS) but instead are sent by spammers.

The security firm also claimed that in this fake campaign, a number of e-mails bear unapproved links and are even devoid of any attachments at times. These e-mails are personalized to the recipient and are sent from varied list of fake UPS employees or the generic "UPS Customer Services".

Usually in these types of fake e-mails, the domain address is abrupt as it appears to come from the domain ups.com. Several images in these types of e-mails appear to be copied from authentic links and take a recipient to a legitimate UPS site. Nonetheless, one click on the call-to-action link, titled "Track your shipment now" takes an unsuspecting consumer to a website that can easily infect the unsafe computer with virus attack.

According to a security researcher with Cloudmark, Angela Knox recommends online shoppers to remain vigilant about any kind of e-mail messages pertaining to "online holiday shopping frenzy", as reported in the website of tgdaily on November 29, 2011. While receiving a delivery message, they should be very careful and ensure the originality of the site from where the purchase has been made despite their urgency and eagerness to receive it soon. Additionally, rather then clicking on any embedded links attached to the mail, they should make an effort to visit directly to the shipping site and track the tracking number, added Knox.

Security experts also commented about a number of other fake spammers who anticipates victimizing easy going customers enticing them with a huge offering of discounts and entices through social networking sites, like Facebook and twitter.

Last but not the least, in the words of Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant of Sophos, "don't try, don't buy, don't reply," is the mantra to internet safety in this holiday season, as highlighted on the website of tgdaily on November 29, 2011.

Related article: Cloudmark Warns Against Operators’ Indifference to Hybrid Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 12/5/2011

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