PandaLabs detects massive spam attack aimed at boosting stock values

PandaLabs has detected the distribution of massive amounts of spam trying to push sales of stocks in a certain company. Specifically, the emails predict a sharp increase in the stock value of West Excelsior Enterprise Inc. over the next five days. The aim is to persuade the recipient to buy stocks in this company.

The objective of this attack is to push up these stock prices. PandaLabs has detected three separate waves of this attack over the last five days. This strategy is designed to maintain the stock price once it has increased.

According to data from several financial services, since the first emails were sent last Friday, the company’s stocks have increased up to 50 percent from their initial value. However, later waves of the email have coincided with downward movements of the stock prices.

The messages used are different from each other. These differences include words in the text of the message, the background color, the message subject or even the name of the sender. All of these differences have been included in order to evade anti-spam filter rules.

“Even though using spam to boost stock prices is nothing new in itself, there are two interesting features about this particular case.” Firstly, this is a highly organized attack, coordinating several waves of spam. Secondly, the fact that each of the messages differs in some way from the others is quite unusual”, explains Luis Corrons, director of PandaLabs.

“It is more than likely that the creator of these messages has bought these stocks cheaply and aims to make a quick profit by pushing the value up. In any event, the greatest danger in these types of attacks is that just as they can push prices up a bit they can also cause and to drop. This could become a dangerous tool if used, say, as a weapon against a group of investors or a specific company.”

To help as many users as possible scan and disinfect their systems, Panda Software offers its free, online anti-malware solution, Panda ActiveScan, which now also detects spyware, at http://www.activescan.com.