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UGN Spam Trackers follow stock scams purveyed in spam
This story began with 60-Second Window #179 "Pump & Dump" when we began tracking spam that promotes stocks. Here is the report for the week ending on March 22, 2006
This will be our last Stock Scam report. Since beginning this exercise in futility, more than 2,000 stock spams reached two mailboxes -- an average of approximately 17 per day. We feel the traffic has diminished from a peak of 235 in a single 7-day period to currently under 35 per week. Those remaining are the hard core spammers that are bouncing spam from server to server all over the planet, impossible to report. We suspect most of these diehards are actually zombies on hijacked Windows machines.
Top Spammer: U.S. Starcom (USTA.PK)
Our top spammer this week was U.S. Starcom (USTA.PK) who used hijacked addresses in six countries including Australia, Morocco, Denmark, Germany, Poland and the UK. But Spamcop tracking report identified the actual source of all the spams as (87.5.152.83) interbusiness.it, telecomitalia.it in Italy. A U.S. company spamming from everywhere BUT the U.S. -- except we know that's the frequent ploy by US spamming companies -- bouncing the mail all over the world to elude detection.
Fierce Markets Spams the SpamCop account
Here's an ironic twist. Obviously, our stock scam spam reports have gotten around, but some spammers interpret that as an invitation to send more spam. Such is the case with a publication called Fierce Markets. FierceMarkets, Inc. sent a spam touting 30,000 subscribers to their stock newsletter! Unbelievable! I have to wonder how many of those 30,000 were picked up from spam lists or otherwise not opt-in subscribers? FierceMarkets, Inc. is in Washington, DC, registrant is Interland, Inc., located in Atlanta, GA. But here's the rest of the story...
Although FierceMarkets didn't actually send the spam, they most likely hired the spammer -- a company called Global Marketing in Mission Viejo, CA, with name servers located in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the bottom of the spam they indicated that our spam trap at spamcop.net had subscribed and gave us the opportunity to unsubscribe at: Xpedite.com a domain owned by Premiere Global Services in Tinton Falls, NJ.
The Return-Path goes to a mailbox at Xpedite.com, sent by a mailbox at Mailunique.com, (ADVAL Communications, Inc., Southfield, MI) but the "Reply To" address pointed to: Globalresultspr.com back in Mission Viejo, CA. Anyone seeing a trend here? Except the SpamCop engine identified the network where the email originated as (137.236.76.80) or "MessageReach.com" owned by Premiere Global Services (NJ) also under the Xpedite.com system. Is everybody clear on that? Is there any wonder why law enforcement has a hard time tracking down spammers?
Since our spam trap at Spamcop.net doesn't subscribe to lists, the address had to have come from a) Global Marketing's own spam list; b) another spam list; c) the "recipient" of a Spam Cop Report to a previous spammer; d) a disgruntled spammer who has a vendetta against FierceMarkets; e) a disgruntled spammer who has a vendetta against us for running the series of articles or; f) an incredibly stupid spammer who would actually send spam to a SpamCop account and get their client's name associated with online criminal activities! This spam did bring in a #6 rating from Spam Assassin, so we know they made at least two violations of the Can Spam Act, for a Felony.
This week: April 15 through April 22, 2006
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U.S. Starcom : USTA.PK = 16
*
China World Trade : CWTD = 2
*
Cross Atlantic Life and Science Technology, Inc. : CTFE.PK = 2
*
Sticky Web, Inc. : SIKY = 2
*
ROCKELLE CORP : RKLC = 2
*
RESORT CLUBS INTERNATIONAL, Inc. : RTCI = 2
*
Syngas International, Inc. : SYNI = 2
*
Wineco Productions Inc. : WNCP = 3
*
PREMIER INFORMATION : PIFR = 4
*
First Petroleum and Pipeline Inc. : FPPL.PK = 4
*
Nano Superlattice Technology, Inc. : NSLT = 5
(This week's list shown at the end of the page below)
Final Notes:
You may remember back a couple of weeks ago, we had implicated the "Motley Fool" newsletter, and that we had contacted them with no response. Well, they finally responded and it would seem there are humans at Fool.com after all. They have assured us that they in no way, shape or form sent any spam, nor are involved in any way with the stocks being spamvertised. Although over the years we've gotten very few stock scams, the rush of stock spam began almost immediately after subscribing to Motley Fool while following an Apple related story. But we take their denial of guilt at face value, and will assume they are a clean operation. While it would seem odd that the number of spams dramatically dropped almost immediately after our second, successful unsubscribe from their list -- I guess you just have to chalk this up to the old Internat saying: stuff happens on the internet. The domain Fool.com should have warned us up front. Subscribe to any list at your own risk
That's all about stocks. Throughout our series of articles, if you haven't learned NOT to support this illegal practice of promoting stocks, too bad.
To all you companies out there who are mentioned in our reports or the Tally -- our sincere apologies if you were an innocent bystander. Your name was, indeed, implicated even though you may not be guilty. You can have your legal department contact us for a zipped file of all but two weeks of data. (Two weeks are somehow missing.) You should also search for your name at www.Spamcop.net. But don't waste your time, if you were indeed innocent, you'll most likely never find the guilty party.
* April 15: Stock Scams, Pump & Dump
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April 10: Stock Scams, Pump & Dump
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April 2: Stock Market Scams REPORT
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March 20: Stock Market Scams REPORT
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March 12: Stock Market Scams REPORT
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March 5: Spamvertised Stocks report
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Feb 18: Stock Scams to Avoid
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Feb. 5: Stock Scams
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Spam, HotStockChat, and the Pump & Dump
* This series originally started in the January, 2006, 60-Second Window column.
Please share your concerns or discoveries, we're listening.
These reports do not endorse nor discredit any stock or company. Stocks listed were the subject of spam caught in UGN spam traps. We are reporting on spam activities only -- not asserting that the company listed is in fact involved in the act of spamming. Readers are cautioned to make their own decisions about purchasing spamvertised stocks. We use a three-step process to research and validate all spam received: 1 Spamcop: all spam listed has been pre-authenticated by SpamCop filtered email addresses. We do not include spam received at other email addresses. SpamCop filters are based on spam reports filed by the SpamCop population. 2 SpamAssassin Ranking: a SpamAssassin rank is assigned to each spam listed. The spam must achieve a "3" rank to be included. 3 Anti-Spam Definition: email which matches one or more criteria established in the Anti-spam Initiative Spam Definition.
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