MP3 Spam Goes Aural

I just got my first spam email with an attached MP3 file.

The thought of spammers putting their messages inside audio had occurred to be - but I failed to document it. To not make that mistake again - I'll put my next prediction out there. Before long, spammers will be sending their messages in video or flash files.

The message itself doesn't contain any content besides the attachment. The Macworld article says the messages don't contain subject lines either - however one of the ones I received contained a single random word, "crush."

Another difference is that Macworld wrote of email containing a synthesized voice pitching a certain stock. The email I got sounded to be human, but was heavily compressed. There's no way to be sure if we were hearing the same thing or not.

However, the Macworld did mention the specific stock the spam promoted, and it was the same as the one in my email. There seems to be little question that the same person or people are behind these messages.

Macworld predicts this campaign may be short-lived - and I agree. For one, the stock being targeted for manipulation isn't being heavily traded. This is an indicator that people aren't falling for it.

Secondly, MP3 spam will likely suffer the same fate as PDF spam. Anti-spam companies pick up on what's going on, and add code to their spam filtering software to delete the messages. People without filters fall for it once, but after that they know to not bother opening such attachments.

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