If there is one thing for sure it is that spammers are creative in finding new ways to bypass anti spam filters. They send distorted pictures, add random text to their messages, zip their spam, use excel files, pdf files and nowadays fdf files. Fdf files ? What’s that again ?
Adobe Fdf is the file extension for the Forms Data Format which I’m sure neither you nor me have ever heard before. The real beauty of the format for spammers is that the Adobe Reader is able to open and display the contents without problem. A great way for spammers to provide everyone with up to date news of stock market insider tips without having to rely on camouflage tactics to bypass the spam filters.
The best way to handle this sort of spam is to create a new spam filter that would move mails with an .fdf attachment right into the junk folder. No company that I know of is sending .fdf files to their customers which means that it is 100% save to automatically move them to the junk folder.
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4 Responses to “FDF File Spam is on the rise”
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[...] spam filters. They send distorted pictures, add random text to their messages, zip their spam, use excel files, pdf files and nowadays fdf files. Fdf files ? What’s that again ? Adobe Fdf is the file extension [...]
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[...] gHacks rašo, kad padaugėjo elektroninio pašto šiukšlių su prisegtais FDF failais. FDF yra Adobe Acrobat failas, skirtas išsaugoti klausimynų ir formų duomenis. Kol kas tie failai nėra virusų nešėjai, bet verta šią nuorodą įtraukti į šlamšto filtrą. [...]
Pesky little spammers…. Bah!
All those different spamming techniques are just creative ways for spammers to avoid being red flagged by spam filters. Anti spam software vendors should be equally creative and innovative to provide proactive solutions to block those annoying e-mails. Bayesian filtering is one of the best features to look for when purchasing anti spam solutions. For anyone looking for more information related to different spam types, you can go to http://www.gfi.com/whitepapers/attachment-spam.pdf – it’s a free whitepaper that can give you a good overview of the different spam techniques. Definitely a great read!