Author Archives: MagicMail

Spam Analysis: Markings of an Emotet Phishing Email

On January 2020 researchers have reported that the Emotet botnet is back in action after taking a Christmas break. Following this we’ve seen an increase in spam volume. One of the main attack vectors of the Emotet botnet is email … Continue reading

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The Lingering Consequences of a Compromised Email Account

Ever have your email account hacked? Did it send spam to everyone on your mailing list, everyone you have ever communicated with through email? If you’ve simply recovered your account and changed your password, it might not be over… Hackers … Continue reading

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Will This be the End of Sextortion?

Sextortion emails have been around for about two years now and it’s surprising that they still trickle in every day. We’ve seen many iterations of sextortion spam, as well as versions which change the context to that of tax evasion … Continue reading

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Catphish Warming Up Our Holiday Inbox

As the days grow colder and the holidays draw near, Spammers have been ramping up their Catphishing campaigns. From displaying fake pictures to writing sweet nothings, they’ll do whatever it takes to get into the minds of their lonely victims. … Continue reading

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New Botnet Activity Targeting Email Accounts

In the past week a new and emerging pattern is being observed which indicates cyber criminals have refined their techniques around attacking email accounts with the end goal of compromising the accounts for malicious purposes. Method A Botnet is being … Continue reading

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Why am I being Spammed? How are they Hacking me?

Don’t you hate it when you get the same spam messages day after day? Have you ever been a victim of your account(s) being hacked? How does an average person with basic internet skills avoid such outcomes? Of course, we … Continue reading

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New Sextortion Variant, Tax Extortion

A new variation of the ‘sextortion‘ spam has been seen in the wild, this time in the context of tax evasion. This extortion variant has many similarities with the previous ‘sextortion’ and ‘bomb extortion’ type spam. It may say that … Continue reading

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Looks like Xmas Vacation is over for the Spammers

On Monday, January 14 2019, we saw a sudden spike in spam of the Emotet and Snowshoe Marketing variety from our detection tools. Here is our data from the Monday and 30 days prior. It shows that Emotet has been … Continue reading

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SMTP AUTH Attacks, How Big is the Problem Really?

The duties of a Spam Auditor involves more than just spam filtering; it also covers other suspicious mail server activity. One example of suspect mail server activity is SMTP Auth attacks. Such attacks can be carried by a single attacker, … Continue reading

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