This is a variety of affiliate spam where you land at a web shop to get a gift or buy a product.
Spammer is attached to a network of shady websites that push products of dubious provenance.- Spammer sends millions of emails with images and links to their site.
- Link redirects through multiple servers to be able to redirect to another site as their sites are continually taken down
- User clicks a link on spammer’s site which contains spammer’s affiliate ID and is taken to survey or directly to a web shop. (Completing the survey gets to the web shop as well)
- If you purchase the item, pay a fee for shipping, or give credit card details you get signed up for a recurring charge which is explained in the Terms and Conditions. Often the business name in the T&Cs is different than the product page. These business names in many cases are complete fiction.
Furthermore, clicking the unsubscribe link asks the user to enter their email address, which should already have been known to the site and is indicative of ineffective or fictious unsubscribe processes.
Below are examples of other emails we receive.
