We at TMC have been overloaded with spam and this week alone was possibly the worst in our history. The problem is becoming an epidemic and we are not alone. Take a look at some findings from a CNN UK article on the proliferation of spam.
Perhaps the most amazing part of the article is the concept of a spam gang. Once gangs were people you were afraid to get shot by and now they are hackers using botnets to get their messages out to the masses. Pretty amazing how times have changed.
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The number of "spam" messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide, according to U.S. email security company Postini.
"E-mail systems are overloaded or melting down trying to keep up with all the spam," said Dan Druker, a vice president at Postini.
His company has detected 7 billion spam e-mails worldwide in November compared to 2.5 billion in June. Spam in Britain has risen by 50 percent in the last two months alone, according to Internet security company SurfControl.
The United States, China and Poland are the top sources of spam, data from security firm Marshal suggests.
About 200 illegal gangs are behind 80 percent of unwanted e-mails, according to Spamhaus, a body that tracks the problem.
The most commonly used e-mail subject lines this week were:
1) Please finalize.
2) Thank you for request.
3) Christmas Special!
4) Dating, 15 new messages for you, Olga.
5) News.
(Source: McAfee).
(Source: McAfee).
