Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
Let's not get hasty. Some of us rely on those daily pump-n'-dump stock scams to support our families.
Won't you think of the shady day-traders?
Although the spammers seem to have a fair bit to learn about machine-generated sales patter, some companies might consider blocking all text in email as a matter of course. So many text files infringe intellectual property and patented business methods, and it can be hard for a company to establish which words are legal and which lemmas are not after they have arrived. Blocking all letters, or at least the letters J-M and all the vowels 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 and/or infringing message sharing. It also has the benefit of neutralizing this most spam at the same time.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security - Ben Franklin
I hate when a certain file type gets blocked. Just today I had to rename my exe files so that I could send them in gmail... even though they were zipped! Yes, gmail actually looked inside my zip file to see if there were any exe files...
So of course, now the instructions to use my script have to include renaming exe files after unzipping.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
... sound so rich you can almost see the pink and taste the meat.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
The realize the real victims are the rest of us who suffer the extra traffic on the internet and in our mail boxes, but who is smart enough to check email, play an mp3 file, and have money to lose and yet still be dumb enough to fall for this?
This isn't a scam, it's economic darwinism.
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...
But there is a group of people who THINK that they can ride on the scammer's pump-n-dump scheme and make some money on the up-side of the pump.
... but feel okay about trying to make some money off of one.
These are the people who know it's wrong and don't have the guts themselves to run a stock scam
I didn't say they were very smart.
Strap on your tinfoil hats, gents. The RIAA stoops to a new low... poisoning the well for all of us who love to email terabytes of illegal MP3s to our co-workers.
You have a fine taste for audiophiles? ;)
Not this shit again...
You can't short a penny stock.
Here's a dumbed down guide to how shorting works:
If you want to borrow a NYSE/NASDAQ stock, your broker will be happy to help (they charge interest and take the shares from another person's account). But if you ask about borrowing a penny stock, they'll tell you to fuck off.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.