by Jeremy Nigh on July 29, 2009
A recent report from Messagelabs shows that spammers are now utilizing automated translation services to translate their messages into other languages, allowing for them to target more countries with the same content with little extra effort on their part.
Free, online translation services have become a favorite of 419-type advance-fee fraudsters. Only recently though, have general spam senders also adopted these tactics as their own. Some countries who have enjoyed better email security before now are seeing a dramatic rise in the level of spam due to the translation of messages into their native tongue.
Spam levels in Germany and The Netherlands have risen by 13% since May of this year, with spam now representing over 95% of all email traffic globally. According to the report, “…in Germany 46.5% of all spam is in German and 2.5% in French. In The Netherlands, 25% of spam is in the Dutch language while in France, 53% is in French and 4% in German. In Japan, 62.3% of the spam is found to be in Oriental non-English languages and in China, this number is 54.7%.”
Despite the influx of non-English spam, however, the report also shows that around the world most spam is still targeting the English language. In July only 1 in every 20 spam messages was in a non-English language.
by Jeremy Nigh on July 23, 2009
According to a mid-year report from TRACElabs, spam is at it’s highest level ever. Previously the highest level recorded was in July of 2008, so this trend suggests that spammers really kick things into high gear during the summer months, and they don’t care one bit about the actions being taken against them.
“The clear message spammers are giving us is that they are unimpeded by the efforts of law enforcement and the security community,” says TRACElabs senior researcher Phil Hay.
With the recent FTC crackdown on Mocolo and 3FN the volume of spam did slow considerably. However, these latest reports show that spammers have hunkered down and brazenly developed better and more resilient systems for keeping themselves in business. According to Hay, “The crime groups running the Waledac, Rustock, Pushdo and Grum spamming botnets continue to be very strong.”
The report also shows that:
- More than 30% of all spam last week came from Asian countries after Vietnam overtook traditional spam powerhouses China, Turkey and Russia for the first time ever.
- Brazil continues to dominate with over 15% of all spam, followed by the USA with 10%.
- Just three specific institutions were the focus of 99.5% of all phishing activity last week: eBay, Bank of America and Comerica.
So despite the fact that organizations are investing more time, money, and resources into the spam problem, the spammers continue to relentlessly pound the unprotected email user with wave after wave of unsolicited messages. These high numbers serve as a reminder that the spam epidemic is not going to disolve anytime soon, so this blogger recommends that you find a good email security service and ride out the storm in comfort.
- Just three specific institutions were the focus of 99.5% of all phishing activity last week: eBay, Bank of America and Comerica.
by Jeremy Nigh on July 22, 2009
Does spam actually return any profit to companies that hire spammers to push their product? Believe it or not it does. Why? Because a decent percentage of individuals actually click spam messages in their inbox.
Recently the MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group) asked North Americans if they had ever responded to a message they believed to be spam (note: we’re assuming their respondents did not have an email security solution in place). Out of the 800 people surveyed 12% confessed to doing so because they were actually interested in what the spam had to offer. “Big red button pressers” represented 6% of the total respondents, saying that they have clicked on spam “just to see what would happen”, while another 13% said they “unknowingly” clicked spam.
That’s a 31% click-through rate! With such a high rate of success, I think it’s safe to say that spam is going to stick around for a while.
by Jeremy Nigh on June 10, 2009
Research shows that email is the most popular tool for online communication
Though email is over 40 years old (that’s older than SMS, Instant Messaging and even the Internet itself) global research conducted by Epsilon in North America, Europe (EMEA), and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region shows that email is still by far the consumer favorite when it comes to online communication.
Email dominates other popular messaging mediums globally.
And despite the fact that the largest percentage of emails received are reported to be spam, email remains a mainstay communication and is being used on an increasing number of devices.
The vast majority of email messages are spam.
The new definition of spam
As long as email has existed, so have spam and a consumer intolerance of unsolicited messages. The new definition of spam is not limited to emails to which consumers have not subscribed, but now encompasses irrelevant messages and contact saturation as well.
The definition of "spam" is becoming (in some cases) increasingly hard to determine. This underscores the need for an email security solution that includes content filtering.
How to limit spam delivery
Accustomed to these messages, consumers are taking action to eliminate or limit the amount of spam they receive by unsubscribing and using tools such as “junk email” folders, “report spam” and “block sender.” 43%-50% of respondents reported to use a spam filter.
Everyone hates spam, and they'll try anything to stop it.
Source: http://www.epsilon.com
