Johannesburg, 06 Sep 2007
Spam now accounts for just under 70% of all e-mail traffic, says the Symantec monthly 'State of Spam' report.
In early August, a dramatic increase in PDF spam was recorded, and at its peak, Symantec estimated PDF spam accounted for nearly 20% of all spam. As August ended, a dramatic fall-off in PDF spam was recorded, accounting for less than 1% of all spam.
Spammers continue to blast out a variety of attacks containing malicious URLs, from Ecard to YouTube. This type of attack accounted for up to 15% of all spam in August.
No major changes in image spam levels were observed in August as it continued to hover around 10% of total spam.
In July, Symantec reported a significant increase in the number of spam messages containing URLs that use the top level domain (TLD) for China, 'cn'. August saw a seven-fold increase in spam messages that contain the 'cn' TLD. These URLs are primarily being used to promote casino and pharmaceutical products.
One of the original types of spam messages, 419 spam - named after an article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud - continues to innovate and evolve. One interesting sideline to attachment spam is that 419 spammers have also started using Word file attachments, and inserting images, says Symantec.
Interesting spammers
The latest career highlighted in degree spam was for law enforcement officers. Symantec's filters blocked 130 000 of these messages in one particular attack.
In another type of unsolicited message, the sender claims he wants to give away his pedigree puppy. It has certain similarities to a 419 scam, with all shouting text and some incorrect English.
It is likely that similar to a 419 scam, the next stage in the correspondence would be to ask any respondents for a financial contribution as a sign of trust, says Symantec.
Related stories:
Top spam revealed
The rise and fall of PDF spam
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