InBoxRevenge KS Forum

It keeps getting better:
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/01/phar ... r-cutwail/

Next installment:
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/06/who- ... botmaster/

The Festi botnet, owned by Artimovich, is currently sitting at number 5 in the M86 pie-chart of the world's largest botnets
http://www.m86security.com/labs/spam_statistics.asp

Igor's disgusting responses to the article on his activities are in the comments on Brian Krebs' posting.
Way to go, moron!

And another update:
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/06/phar ... nomics-101

Rather than grab the quick headlines and move on, Brian has been digging deep into evidence in a huge trove of spammer forum data and linking to information from other sources. The fact that he's been getting DDoS'd recently is pretty good evidence he's touching a nerve.

Best news article yet, a great read:
Rogue Pharma, Fake AV Vendors feel credit card crunch

Researchers have been doing trial purchases, tracking the money trail, and (together with brand-holders) pressuring the credit card companies (in this case Visa) to take action on the few merchant banks involved. This has proven highly successful, and the scammer forums have admitted that they are being burned.

The research paper is also available in PDF format;, all credit to George Mason University, UCSD and the International Computer Science Institute.

The proof? The effect on the recently prevalent counterfeit software and counterfeit luxury goods categories has been dramatic -
(Oct 2012)

Pharma scam rates are still the major survivor. The scammers are trying to work around the copyright infringement issue by using the ingredient names rather than the trademark names, but time will tell on that. Now that the credit card companies have finally started bringing down the curtain, we may see more significant inroads into the pharma category.