Valentine’s Day Mail Can Mislead Users: Kaspersky
Eye catching coupons, discounts on valentine’s gift attracts users to open the malicious mail
Feb 14, 2012
St. Valentine’s Day 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 a whole six weeks to reap the benefits of this yearly occasion.
The subject line and in the body of the text of a mail-out message “attractive” words that prompt users to open a message. 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.