Let There be Spam
Let There be Spam
February 6, 2008: Symantec have released their State of Spam report for the first month of the year with a predictable increase in volume and the official passing of the hat to Europe who has been crowned the king of spam.
Europe’s coronation comes from the percentage of spam messages coming from the continent has exceeded that of the usual culprit, the USA for the third consecutive month. Aside from the usual array of Nigerian scams, upcoming culprits have been Valentines spam messages which are targeting men with gift-giving ads, only to redirect them to a singles dating site.
Another new spam attack on the rise has been a flood of fake tax refunds praying on people’s hope for an unexpected benefit and outlandishly high paying job offers asking users to submit their resume.
On a positive note the research has found that the average spam size has fallen, likely due to the decline of image-based spam. This type of spam became popular amongst malicious spammers at the end of 2006 thanks to most software packages not being able to handle the onslaught. The rush to capitalise on software weaknesses would reach fever pitch in January 2007 where Image spam hit its highest peak ever and accounted for 52% of all spam, this figure has subsequently fallen to just 8% of total spam in January 2008.
Other types of bizarre new spam campaigns emerging include vitamins promising to improve your genetics, Russian pornographic services requiring the user to SMS them to continue being spammed with the images (and pay a hefty fee in the process) and cheap, fast Visas for European countries such as Poland.