In March 2013, pump and dump spam struck back with a force not seen since 2008. It attempts to lure email recipients into buying cheap stock with a low trading volume which the spammers previously bought at a low price. Once enough users have bought shares and the stock price has risen, the spammers sell – resulting in gains for them and losses for other buyers. In the case of a typical pump and dump campaign launched on April 19, the spammers bought the shares for as low as $0.22 and then sold them for as high as $0.40, causing the stock to plummet to $0.20. In this way, the spammers gained more than 80 percent while the victims lost up to 50 percent (estimates based on analyses of the stock during the campaign).
Each month beginning in May 2013, the research team of Commtouch® (NASDAQ: CTCH) presents the “Commtouch Security Number of the Month” – a number representing and illustrating a current issue or trend in email security.