Russian Dating

Spam for pump and dump stocks, Russian dating and malware increases again admin on Feb.20, 2013, under
Security Array

February 20, 2013

After a period of very low amounts of email spam, the tides have turned and spam is on the rise, once again. The topics being spammed now include pump and dump penny stocks, Russian dating scams, the occasional misspelled Viagra/Cialis pills, and the usual Blackhole malware exploit kits.

Since I use the "Windows Live Mail" desktop email client to compose, send and read my email, and its spam filtering rules are quite limited in scope, I long ago turned to a commercial anti-spam filtering program called MailWasher Pro, as a first line of defense against email spam, scams and malware links and attachments. The program works well enough in its basic format, with the tools built into it. But, I learned that by creating my own spam filters, I was able to identify, flag and delete the vast majority of junk email that is sent to me every day.

One thing I have learned about spammers is that they change or purposely misspell their subjects and body text quite often, to try to evade anti-spam filters that are created by spam fighters and spam filtering companies, to detect various types of spam. Sometimes they reverse or displace letters in known brand name drugs, knowing that most recipients will still interpret the real meaning.

When we read text, our human brains can make sense of garbled words and usually read totally misspelled words accurately. Try it yourself: What does this word really mean: Vigara? How about this one: Cailis? If you live in an English speaking country and read English you'll know what the real words are supposed to be. Your brain processes this information as you gain input from media sources and your interactions with other people.

If you use email for business or other important purposes, reducing the amount of spam for counterfeit drugs and goods, Russian brides, useless penny stocks and especially anything leading to a malware attack should be of utmost importance to you. A combination of
MailWasher Pro and my spam filters

are a great one-two punch that will make a big dent in the amount of junk email you have to deal with.

People like me, who despise spammers and scammers, are sometimes able to write our own spam filter rules that detect misspelled brand names and other commonly altered words used to promote spamvertised items and services. I personally take it as a challenge to match these misspelled words and phrases and delete them before they are ever downloaded to my Windows Live Mail email client.

MailWasher Pro Spam Filters

page. I update them as needed to respond to changes made by the spammers who try to get past my and other people's filters. I have already created two new filters this week and updated two existing ones that are being spammed out heavily. They include the pump and dump stock scams making the rounds all this week.

My filters can block particular sender names, subjects, words and can detect hostile links and attachments. Some variants may slip through occasionally, but I am usually pretty quick to detect them and either add to or alter a rule, or create a new one. I put a lot of effort into detecting hostile links to exploit attack kits, like the Blackhole and Cool Exploit Kit. Those nasties download dangerous Trojans that may empty your bank account, steal your important logins, or steal your identity. Or, they might download ransomeware that locks you out of using your computer until you pay the scammers for an unlock key you may never receive. Or, you may end up with fake security programs that display a long list of non-existent infections which can't be "removed" until you pay to register that rogue program.

MailWasher Pro spam filters page for downloadable versions of my current spam filters for both the old and new versions of MailWasher Pro. There is an iframe on the page which has the new xml version already loaded, for you to copy and paste individual filter rules into your own filter set. Instructions for downloading and applying the filters are on the page. You'll need to have
MailWasher Pro

in order to use them, but it is well worth the money.

Notice: I am both a registered user and compensated affiliate of MailWasher Pro. I can speak for the program because I use it myself. I even
help people write custom filter rules to block certain spam subjects or senders, when they can't figure it out for themselves.