Kaspersky Lab reports on St. Valentine's Day Threat
Kaspersky Lab, Senior Spam Analyst has announced St. Valentine's Day. Year in, year out, it is becoming more and more of a reason for spammers to get to work. Users start receiving spam mail-outs offering presents for the romantic occasion in January since spammers want whole six weeks to reap the benefits of this yearly occasion.
The newest of such "attractors" in the spammer world has become the word "coupon". This is often simply substituted for the word "discounts", attracting attention to goods or services. But there is another way to promote goods and services via "coupon spam": companies put their offerings on a coupon service and then via spam advertise them to try and reach a bigger audience.
Nevertheless, it would appear several firms reckon this method of attracting attention is worthwhile: the first St. Valentine's spam mail-out, which Kaspersky Lab detected earlier this year, was in this category. The company offered the e-mail recipient to buy a small present for one's beloved on St. Valentine's Day, using a discount that was obtainable via the large coupon service Groupon. The use of coupon services is a completely legitimate method of advertising. However, their popularity brings with it potential threats of phishing attacks. Phishers can be interested in users who have funds in their accounts with a coupon service – funds which they can spend immediately when an offer takes their fancy.
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