Father’s Day spam floods in, pointing to gambling websites

SophosLabs has intercepted a large number of “Buy your dad a cigar” spam messages, currently being spread across the internet in the run-up to Father’s Day this weekend.

If you click on links in the email you will typically end up on gambling websites.

Presumably the spammers are hoping to earn affiliate commission by driving traffic to the websites, and hope that the thought of buying a cigar at the last-minute for Father’s Day will be enough to get folks to click.

That or the bad guys have goofed up their attempt to earn cash pointing to cigar websites, and are pointing to other websites by mistake.

The truth is hard to determine, but one thing is clear. You shouldn’t click on links in unsolicited emails, and you should never consider purchasing products promoted to you via spam messages.

If you’re a father, I hope you have a good weekend – and receive a more pleasant gift than an unsolicited spam email.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.