Spamalytics: An empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion

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

doi:10.1145/1455770.1455774

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 proceeding › Conference 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 language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08
Pages	3-14
Number of pages	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1455770.1455774
State	Published - 2008
Externally published	Yes
Event	15th ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08 - Alexandria, VA, United States Duration: Oct 27 2008 → Oct 31 2008

Publication series

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

Other

Other	15th ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08
Country/Territory	United States
City	Alexandria, VA
Period	10/27/08 → 10/31/08

Keywords

Conversion
Spam
Unsolicited email

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Computer Networks and Communications

Online availability

10.1145/1455770.1455774

Library availability

Discover UIUC Full Text

Cite this

Kanich, C., Kreibich, C., Levchenko, K., Enright, B., Voelker, G. M., Paxsonf, V., & Savage, S. (2008). Spamalytics: An empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion. In Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08 (pp. 3-14). (Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security). https://doi.org/10.1145/1455770.1455774

Spamalytics: An empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion. / Kanich, Chris; Kreibich, Christian; Levchenko, Kirill et al.
Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08. 2008. p. 3-14 (Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Kanich, C, Kreibich, C, Levchenko, K, Enright, B, Voelker, GM, Paxsonf, V & Savage, S 2008, Spamalytics: An empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion. in Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 3-14, 15th ACM conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'08, Alexandria, VA, United States, 10/27/08. https://doi.org/10.1145/1455770.1455774

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Spamalytics: An empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Online availability

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