Lack of anti-spam laws leads to a flurry of unsolicited email

Jun 16, 2014 23:03 GMT  ·  By

With such a global event as the World Cup in Brazil in development, it’s no wonder that spammers are trying their best to capitalize on the gullible and set out some attractive traps to get their hands on some money.

Cloudmark’s Andrew Conway presented an email sample from crooks attempting an advanced fee scam. This type of fraud occurs when the victim is asked to make a small payment in advance with the promise of a larger sum of money being directed their way.

Believe it or not, this is a scheme older than the Internet and has resisted the test of time by adapting to the digital environment.

The sample caught by Cloudmark informs the victim that their address was selected as the winner of a total of two million GBP as a result of a FIFA 2014 World Cup lottery drawing.

The bogus message goes on to say that only three email addresses were selected and that the drawing was arranged by “FIFA in collaboration with Gmail/AOL! Inc.” and that an “Electronic Random Selection System (ERSS)” was used.

This is a fortunate case that can be spotted as scam attempt a mile away, but Cloudmark, a reputable company dealing with messaging threats, notes that their systems caught what they call “grey mail”, legitimate marketing messages that border spam.

Unsolicited messages that are not regulated by laws in any way can very easily reach a user’s inbox. In Brazil, for instance, there are no anti-spam laws and inboxes are “constantly bombarded by unsolicited marketing emails of all sorts.”