By ChannelTimes Staff
Mumbai, Jul 23, 2008 1447 hrs IST

In its first monthly spam report, Secure Computing has revealed the list of 6 major spam waves in the month of June and new methods for detecting and blocking spam. The list includes: Phishing Attacks: As per the company, the users round-the-globe witnessed new round of phishing attacks. These attacks aimed at convincing user to log into a service immediately, and confirm personal details in order to prevent an impending financial catastrophe. The email usually directs the user to the URL of an insecure hijacked website. Fashion Spam: The other frequent trend is a common form of spam - fashion spam. It generally tries to sell the overstocked goods by promising huge discounts and top quality. The company recently found a number of additional brands added to the mix, including Adidas, Bally, Bikkembergs, Boss, Burberry, Chloe, Coach and Paul Smith. Loan Spam: This trend attempts to capitalize on the financial dents of the users. Hoax calls on 'instant loan' with offering false links to it forces people to go for it. As per the company, such links could lead the user to a Trojaned workstation or convince them to provide personal financial information. Penny Stocks with Nearly Legitimate Acronyms: This spam tries to influence the market by creating false hype about a stock. This is also known as the 'pump and dump' scheme. A large amount of stock will be purchased by foreign investors prior to an email campaign, and when talking about a 3-cent stock, an increase to 4 or 5 cents represents a significant increase in capital. Spammers sell-off the stock before market watchers catch wind of the email campaign, and then pocket the money of clueless investors. Win a BlackBerry: Who doesn't want to win a blackberry? And to win one for free is even better! Spammers are notorious for driving their victims to a hacked site with the lure of a product. False Headlines: The month of June saw several false headlines hitting the market with some or the other way. False headlines employ shock value to lure someone to click a link that then offers a Trojaned executable to the client of the person clicking on the link. Many of these headlines include rumors of abuse in Iraq, corruption and sex scandals in local governments and colleges, etc.