Increase in Image Spam from Stock Spam to Viagra Spam
Posted by techie on July 24, 2006
I don’t know how many other people have been seeing the amount of spam into their mailboxes increasing significantly recently and it is coming in the form of images. A recent USA Today article said this:
The spam contains images spouting everything from stock scams to Viagra, and its volume has more than doubled since April, according to analysis by anti-spam vendor IronPort Systems.
Image-based spam accounts for 21% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005, IronPort says.
Marketers are deploying image-based spam because it is harder to detect than text-based spam, and consumers are more likely to read an e-mail with a picture or graphic, says Craig Sprosts of IronPort.
The newest spam uses technology that varies the content of individual messages — through colors, backgrounds, picture sizes or font types — so they appear to be distinct to spam filters. The spam is delivered to consumers and companies through millions of compromised PCs, called bots.
As a result, the messages are like snowflakes: No two are alike, says Julian Haight, founder of anti-spam organization SpamCop.
I hope another quote from the same article isn’t true:
“It is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game,” Alperovitch says.
If people would just stop clicking on spam then it would mostly stop. What are we going to do? Probably just grin and enjoy.
