Spamalytics: An empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion

Chris Kanich, Christian Kreibich, Kirill Levchenko, Brandon Enright, Geoffrey M. Voelker, Vern Paxsonf, Stefan Savage

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The "conversion rate" of spam - the probability that an unsolicited e-mail will ultimately elicit a "sale" - underlies the entire spam value proposition. However, our understanding of this critical behavior is quite limited, and the literature lacks any quantitative study concerning its true value. In this paper we present a methodology for measuring the conversion rate of spam. Using a parasitic infiltration of an existing botnet's infrastructure, we analyze two spam campaigns: one designed to propagate a malware Trojan, the other marketing on-line pharmaceuticals. For nearly a half billion spam e-mails we identify the number that are successfully delivered, the number that pass through popular anti-spam filters, the number that elicit user visits to the advertised sites, and the number of "sales" and "infections" produced.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08
Pages3-14
Number of pages12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes
Event15th ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08 - Alexandria, VA, United States
Duration: Oct 27 2008Oct 31 2008

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security
ISSN (Print)1543-7221

Other

Other15th ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAlexandria, VA
Period10/27/0810/31/08

Keywords

  • Conversion
  • Spam
  • Unsolicited email

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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