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According to bleepingcomputer media, on January 17, the world’s largest spam Necurs botnet has issued millions of junk e-mail, designed to push a little-known encryption currency – Swisscoin. The current spam activity has caused Swisscoin to lose 40% of its original deal price, but it is unclear what Necurs plays in it.
Often this type of spam is called pumped and dumped, relying on sending a lot of spam to promote users’ interest in particular low-priced stocks. Spammers buy stocks at low prices in advance, and sell stocks at higher prices when the spam activity raises prices.
For the first time promote cryptocurrencies
Necurs has been involved in cybercriminal spam campaigns for many years, such as distributing Dridex Bank Trojans and some ransomware. However, it is worth noting that Necurs for the first time this week promoted Swisscoin cryptocurrency via a large spam campaign instead of pushing low-cost stocks as usual.
The transaction on Swisscoin was described in a report last year as a Ponzi scheme for multi-level marketing (MLM). The transaction resumed operation on January 15 after a brief pause, and spam started to spread the same day. At present, Necurs Botnet has sent three different types of spam, the following is the subject of the email:
This crypto coin could go up fifty thousand percent this year
Let me tell you about one crypto currency that could turn 1000 bucks into 1 million
Forget about bitcoin, there’s a way better coin you can buy.
According to preliminary statistics, cryptocurrencies have lost 40% of their original transaction price since the spam was sent out.
Because no similar spam activity was previously used as a reference, it is unclear to what extent Necurs affects the Swisscoin transaction price, but researchers think the bitcoin decline may have caused some fluctuations in the Swisscoin price.
Source: Bleeping Computer
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