Online Search for World Cup 2010 may Trigger Spam

ISPA, the Internet Service Providers' Association of South Africa, just recently conveyed its apprehension over the increasing amount of e-mail spam in South Africa. The magnitude of spam growing within the country was rising at a startling rate, the group said.

According to Symantec, an internet security and anti-spyware protection group, spam made up for 89.99% of e-mail for February this year as compared to 86.49% for February 2009. The figure was 57.3% in February 2005.

Moreover, in comparison to any other continent of the world, cybercrime in Africa is rising more rapidly. As estimated by the cyber security experts, 80% of systems on the African continent are already compromised with viruses and other malware.

The chairman of ISPA's anti-spam Working Group, Rob Hunter commented on this trend and stated that because of spam, every year, the group members and customers have to spend a lot for unnecessary bandwidth charges, and each month that passes, brings in more severe problems. Regardless of the investments made in advancing the technology to fight spam by the Internet Spam Providers, spammers, in some or the other ways manage to position them a step ahead, as per the news published by FIN24.com on March 26, 2010.

Disturbingly, as 2010 World Cup is set to take place in the country, the threat is expected to increase. Indeed, Symantec anti-virus firm's Internet security analysts have spotted a botnet established to obtain personal information from the World Cup shoppers. A botnet is an illegal network of systems hijacked by Web miscreants.

Symantec also said that users browsing the Internet for online tickets to the World Cup, transportation and accommodation are most likely to bump into phishing websites. Fraudsters set up to excavate bank and credit card details. Users may also encounter spam e-mails specifically created to entice them for procuring their personal details.

Experts also said that a bunch of productive sellers of e-mail address database are extensively active into flooding spam in the country. In some cases, genuine businesses purchase e-mail databases from the merchants who sell lists, completely unaware that such lists can highly damage their brand image.

Hunter added that firms and businesses must know that in these databases and lists of e-mail addresses, consumers' consent is not there.

Related article: Online Card Fraud Shows Greater Tendency Than Chip and Pin

» SPAMfighter News - 4/12/2010