Tech
Pump-and-dump spammers turn to PDFs
Anti-virus researchers at McAfee are reporting a massive wave of "pump-and-dump" stock spam -- with a interesting twist.
![ryan-naraine.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/58705b1ab848cb0209d7d7d504dffaab176d93aa/2014/07/22/4b4e2273-1175-11e4-9732-00505685119a/ryan-naraine.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
Anti-virus researchers at McAfee are reporting a massive wave of "pump-and-dump" stock spam -- with a interesting twist.
Instead of attaching image (.gif) files touting the penny stock, the spammers are now using PDF files with randomly generated subject lines, sender names and blank message bodies.
![Pump-and-dump spammers turn to PDFs](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/04/764687b5-4b66-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/pumpdumpspam.jpg)
McAfee's Nick Kelly said the appearance of PDF-based spam makes sense for the spammers because the automation of PDF files is easier than other documents formats.
ALSO SEE: