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Kaspersky: Nigeria’s election spiked world’s spam count
Nigeria’s last presidential election, won by President Muhammadu
Buhari, was among world events that generated increased spam emails in
the second quarter of 2015 according to Kaspersky.
According to
the Kaspersky Lab’s Spam and Phishing report for the quarter, the study
of world’s unsolicited mail traffic discovered a marked increase in the
use of world events such as the presidential election in Nigeria, the
earthquake in Nepal and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, “in spam emails
in attempts to extract personal data and voluntary donations from
victims worldwide.”
Although the percentage of spam in email traffic decreased by 5.8
percent from the previous quarter (from 59.2% to 53.4%), Q2 2015 spam
emails were more focused on current events to lure victims. Some spam
included fake messages asking the recipients to make a donation to help
the victims of the earthquake in Nepal.
“In other mass mailings,
fraudsters tried to lure recipients with the sum of $2 million, which
the newly-elected President of Nigeria was allegedly ready to send the
user as compensation.” Kaspersky Lab’s Spam and Phishing report.
In other mass mailings, fraudsters tried to lure recipients with the
sum of $2 million, which the newly-elected President of Nigeria was
allegedly ready to send the user as compensation, the Kaspersky Lab’s
Spam and Phishing report cited.
Additional mailings included fraudulent notifications of being
chosen through a lottery drawing for tickets to watch the Olympic Games
in Brazil, 2016. These mailing were an attempt to persuade recipients to
provide spammers with personal data to receive the prize.
Darya Gudkova, Head of Content Analysis and Research Department,
Kaspersky Lab said, “During this quarter we saw spammers use tragic
events to trick consumers. It’s a tactic that fraudsters have used
before, but with events like the Nepal earthquake being covered widely
by media worldwide, these messages are likely to resonate with
sympathetic recipients. To protect themselves, people should not open
emails from unknown senders and remember not to click links in these
emails, or open any attachments. With some fraudsters using tactics to
make the name and address of the sender look more legitimate, this is
more important than ever.”
