Commtouch Security Number of the Month May 2013: 50% Financial Loss for Victims of Pump and Dump Spam

MCLEAN, Virginia, May 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

In March 2013, pump and dump spam struck back with a force not seen since 2008. It attempts to lure email recipients into buying cheap stock with a low trading volume which the spammers previously bought at a low price. Once enough users have bought shares and the stock price has risen, the spammers sell - resulting in gains for them and losses for other buyers. In the case of a typical pump and dump campaign launched on April 19, the spammers bought the shares for as low as $0.22 and then sold them for as high as $0.40, causing the stock to plummet to $0.20. In this way, the spammers gained more than 80 percent while the victims lost up to 50 percent (estimates based on analyses of the stock during the campaign).

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Each month beginning in May 2013, the research team of Commtouch^® (NASDAQ: CTCH), a leading provider of Internet security technology and cloud-based services, presents the "Commtouch Security Number of the Month" - a number representing and illustrating a current issue or trend in email security.

See the attached Commtouch illustration that depicts the pump and dump spam process.

About Commtouch

Commtouch^® (NASDAQ: CTCH) is a leading provider of Internet security technology and cloud-based services for vendors and service providers, increasing the value and profitability of our customers' solutions by protecting billions of Internet transactions on a daily basis. With 12 global data centers and award-winning, patented technology, Commtouch's email, Web, and antivirus capabilities easily integrate into our customers' products and solutions, keeping safe more than 350 million end users. To learn more, visit http://www.commtouch.com.

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SOURCE Commtouch