SpamAccording to communications security company IronPort, a major spam outbreak hit the Internet recently, totaling a whopping five billion mails. This makes it one of the 10 largest this year, or 8% of all spam in the past day.

In a technique called stock pump-and-dump spam, the spammer blasted messages that persuaded people to buy a low-valued German stock. Once the price increased, the spammer quickly sold his shares for a nice profit.

Excerpt from Network World:

The German stock spam messages was cleverly designed, officials at IronPort say, using a professional PDF attached to the e-mail message that looks like an investment newsletter.

Though the use of images as attachments have been a rising trend in recent months, the use of PDFs to fool recipients is a first, according to IronPort.

It is interesting to note that in this instance, the trading volume of the stock actually increased by 20%.

The questions that immediately come to mind are, “Why do enough people still respond to spam to make it worth it spamming? Is it sheer gullibility of human nature or just plain ignorance?” Join the discussion.