Russian Spam Invasion

Things have been relatively quiet on the referral spam front for awhile, but the last month or so has seen an uptick in my Blogger stats. Most are not shown as links due to Google filtering, however the country of Russia is showing a ridiculous amount in my “Audience” figures. In fact, it is close to matching my traffic from the United States which is mostly legit.

Remember not to click on strange links in your Blogger stats because you never know where they will take you. Leave that to people crazy or skilled enough to safely investigate.

The latest spam from the Land of the Bear comes from a fake auction site. Oh you can really buy stuff there, but the timer is just a come on to influence you into an impulse buy. A long running con is magnetic bracelets for athletes and arthritis sufferers exploiting the placebo effect to work “miracles” through bogus science. Power Balance is one of those cheap trinkets being flogged at http: // power-balances . apishops . ru / proving that scams are universal or at least international.

Another product flogged is exotic berries from Asia or South America that will cure just about every ailment known to man. The link http : // gojiberriess . apishops . ru / promises that Goji Berries will overcome depression, increase libido in both sexes, prevent aging, clear skin conditions, get rid of menopause symptoms, decrease blood sugar levels, and more things than I care to list. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I’d like to sell you for a bargain.

Going back a bit, an interesting wave of Russian spam offering loans showed up with each link appearing just three times in referrals. It was a well disciplined attack that took place over two to three days and was gone again. All of them went to different pages on the same website. Aimed at Russian residents with a particular focus on the St. Petersburg area for some, they use an applicant’s passport as collateral if I’m not mistaken.

Leading the way was http: // odobren . ru / fizcredit / ekspresskredit . html offering express loans and http : // odobren . ru / fizcredit / ipoteka . html pushing mortgages.

Easy credit is a lucrative business right now with extortionary rates for those with no or poor credit ratings. In fact, Google has been cracking down on websites involved with the these kind of loans lately. http : // odobren . ru / fizcredit / kreditbezporuch . html is a classic example of the type. The emphasis on passports at http : // odobren . ru / fizcredit / kreditpas . html bothers me with thoughts of them being taken away upon default. I doubt that’s what happens and that they are considered a harder to fake identification than others, hence their importance. Still, it is worrisome.

Marching in the last rank were http : // odobren . ru / fizcredit / potrebkredit . html offering consumer credit and http : // odobren . ru / jurkredit . html pitching small business loans. I have to say the site has a slick layout, but would you borrow money from somebody using shady practices to find customers?

I hope not.