“Hello, this is an investor alert.
Exit Only Incorporated has announced it is ready to launch its new text4cars.com website, already a huge success in Canada, we are expecting amazing results in the USA.
Go read the news and sit on EXTO. That symbol again is EXTO. Thank you.”
The MP3 file bears different names, such as elvis.mp3, carrieunderwood.mp3, baby.mp3, fergie.mp3 or bbrown.mp3. However, if users are curious enough to play it (you’ve never heard of viruses coming from spam emails, have you?), they’ll only get a monotone, randomly altered voice telling them to buy EXTO shares.
The scheme is quite simple: naïve users will follow the advice and invest in the company, making the spammers very happy:
"The spammers are already likely to have purchased stock on the cheap, and they are now trying to artificially inflate its price by encouraging others to purchase more, " says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Once the stock rises, they’ll quickly sell up, leaving the duped investors crying in the chapel. Thankfully though, it’s hard to believe that many Internet users will fall for such an amateurish presentation of an ‘investor alert’."