The Changing Pattern of Spam

 

In two months spam and the other unwanted e-mails that I receive has increased four-fold. On the 7th June I got 866 messages and on the 16th August, I got no less than 3,678.

So where does it all come from.



The graph shows the various types of spam in order of importance; Pump and Dump, Drugs, Loans, Bank Phishing Scams, Logos, Luxury Fakes, Software and Others.

Note :-

1. Things like Pornography, Casinos, God, PayPal/eBay Scams and Fake Degrees were almost insignificant and are included in Others.

2. One of the most significant changes is that Luxury Fakes and Software scams have reduced by a considerable amount. Microsoft and others have stated in the press, that they are cracking down on this sort of scam and they seem to be effective.

3. The three biggest categories of spam are Pump and Dump Share Scams, Pharmaceutical Drugs and Home Loans. All have increased by from three to over twenty times. All are aimed at or were instigated in the United States and promote sites or companies in that country.

4. Bank Scams have also grown considerably and appear to be all the same. Could this mean they are coming from the same source? Could this site be in Russia?

5. Logo scams are a bit like boils. They erupt occasionally. It appears that this is what they have done on the 16th August.

At a time when there are worries about terrorism and crime, it beggars belief that the United States allows the three major scams to be perpetrated. Can anybody give me a sensible explanation?

The fact that both the Luxury Fakes and Software spam have dropped says very much that commercial organisations, such as Microsoft, Adobe, Rolex and Louis Vuitton, are much better at fighting spam than governments.