Big pump-and-dump spam run underway

You may have noticed an uptick in spam in your email inbox recently. I certainly have.

Security firm Postini sent me an email last night to say it is currently tracking one of the biggest pump-and-dump spam scams in history.

The volume of spam Thursday was up on average 53%, with peak loads as much as 175% higher than normal. The total size of the spam (driven by the massive amount of .pdf-based spam Postini is seeing) was up 445% on average yesterday compared to the day before, the vendor said.

“This particular scam involves sending .pdf attachments that solicit recipients of the email to purchase stock in Prime Time Group Inc., ultimately artificially inflating the stock price,” one of Postini’s PR reps wrote in the email. “As soon as the stock price increases, spammers sell the Prime Time Group stock they previously purchased, often times making thousands of dollars in a day.”

I tend to be skeptical when a security vendor calls something “the biggest in history” or “the first of its kind.” It rarely turns out to be the case. Nevertheless, I have seen a big increase in spam hitting my own inbox this week, so a heads up is in order.