Worldwide Rogue Pharmacy Spam Drops

In October, spam began to decline worldwide, according to experts that follow spam, after the closure of Spamit, a Russian affiliate program that paid spammers to promote “Canadian Pharmacy” brand rogue pharmacies.

In October, spam began to decline worldwide, according to experts that follow spam, after the closure of Spamit, a Russian affiliate program that paid spammers to promote “Canadian Pharmacy” brand rogue pharmacies. However, now the software used to operate Spamit, Rustock, a spam botnet, is now focusing on installing spyware and adware in vulnerable computers.

Investigative reporter, Brian Krebs, reports that M86 Security Labs measured Spam from February until the end of 2010 and that after Spamit closed in October, spam volume dropped precipitously and held to less than half the average of the previous seven months. In addition, M86 Security Labs found that Rustock virtually shut down. In addition to Rustock, several other botnets have been quiet since the end of December 2010.

Spamit promoted rogue pharmacies branded “Canadian Pharmacy” predominantly for American victims, but also used “European Pharmacy” and “United Pharmacy” to hook European and British online drug purchasers.

However, Krebs reports that the malware, while no longer hijacking computers to send rogue pharmacy spam, is still active and engaging in click fraud. Click fraud is a type of Internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when the clandestine malware imitates a legitimate web user clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link.