Like Retailers, Spammers Gear Up for Holidays
Retailers are not alone in preparing for a busy holiday season.Spammers have gotten a jump on the holidays by increasing the frequency of spam offering cheap loans, according to figures released Nov. 10 by United Kingdom e-mail management company Clearswift.
Clearswift's spam index for October showed 24 percent was finance-related, with 15 percent for direct products. Finance-related spam rose from 12 percent a month earlier, Clearswift said, attributing it to spammers looking to entice cash-strapped shoppers into taking out loans.
"Not only are spammers developing more and more cunning ways of getting around e-mail filtering technology, but their marketing strategy is clearly up to scratch, too," Alyn Hockey, Clearswift's director of research, said in a statement.
Health-related products were the most popular spam category, accounting for 27 percent, while pornography made up 16 percent of Clearswift's sample. Clearswift compiles its spam index based on e-mails it receives, those going to dummy accounts it has set up and those submitted by customers.
According to Brightmail, 52 percent of e-mail traffic in October was spam, down slightly from 54 percent in September. Brightmail pegged finance-related offers as the second-most-popular category, garnering 16 percent. Products were the top spam category, accounting for 21.5 percent of spam, it reported.
