Spam ensnares with ersatz endorsements

Spammers have taken to faking endorsements from leading US financial publications in their latest attempts to hoodwink Internet users into parting with their hard-earned cash. Beverley Hills, California-based junk emailer Diamond International, which runs an operation called the World Currency Cartel, claimed the Wall Street Journal, National Business Weekly, the New York Times and others had published ringing endorsements of the Cartel's money-making scheme. However, none of them have covered the company -- and certainly not backed its claim to turn $25 into four times that sum. Diamond's email requires a cheque or money-order payment of $195 in exchange for full details on how Net users can join an organisation whose members, the New York Times allegedly reported, are "amassing hundreds of millions of dollars in the currency market using a very legal method". Diamond International first sent the World Currency Cartel spam last year, and have been mailing it out at regular intervals ever since. ®