Symantec - Spam Rates will Increase During 2009

After two weeks of New Year, the spam attacks already increased significantly. MessageLabs- an e-mail security company owned by Symantec- says that 2009 is expected to see a significant increase in financial scams and mail frauds as compared to 2008.

MessageLabs detected an increase in mail scam and financial scams in the last few weeks (January 2009). The company reveals that mails with subject lines "You have won the UK National Lottery" and "Congratulations New Year Winner" constituted almost 10% of the mails sent in 2009. That is the 43,000 mails out of the 427,000 mails scanned by the firm. Further, this is 3 times more mails than 2008.

However, maximum number of the web users knows about these mail scams and are less vulnerable to be trapped in these scams. MessageLabs also said that there is reason to be worried as Nigerian scams which ask for help in transferring money have become savvier with mails that are easy to read and short.

Senior Analyst at MessageLabs, Paul Wood, claims that the recession can also lead to rise in online fraud. Paul also informs that as the economic conditions are expected to remains dull and the failure to access credit through official channels, hackers are assuming that users can be lured by irresistible offers and schemes, as reported by USNews on January 17, 2008.

Further, people are still attacked by these scams, particularly elderly people, computer illiterate and users who are not well acquainted with the online systems.

In addition, subject line like "Recession Solution for Debt", "Survive the Recession; earn 500 dollars or more a week!" or "Turn the bad economy into $$$ in your pocket" attract victims with the offer of work from home services. This enables the hackers to acquire private details from those users who are under tough conditions at the moment.

Lastly, with several users accessing social networking sites every day, it is the golden opportunity for hackers to make as many victims as possible.

» SPAMfighter News - 03-02-2009

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