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New Flavour of Spam - MP3 Stock Scams

An anonymous reader writes "Spammers are back with a new trick, this time round sending messages with MP3 attachments that contain the latest pump-and-dump stock scams. One sample identified by Sophos was a heavily distorted 30-second MP3 file. A synthetic female voice was used to promote a particular stock. Says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos: 'Although the spammers seem to have a fair bit to learn about machine-generated sales patter, some companies might consider blocking all MP3s in email as a matter of course. So many music files infringe copyright, and it can be hard for a company to establish which ones are legal and which are not after they have arrived. Blocking MP3s, or at least quarantining until requested by the user, can be a good way for a company to take a proactive stance against the use of email for illegal file sharing. It also has the benefit of neutralizing this sort of spam at the same time.'"

2 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. VOIP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well hold on there, I've got a nice new shiny VOIP line at home, guess how the answering service works? That's right, MP3s in my email...

  2. What I want to know... by JK_the_Slacker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... is how they'll manage to misspell the words in an mp3?

    --
    I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.