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Providers ‘struggle’ to deal with line tags
(09-10-07) - Spam emails continue to rise, now accounting for 70 per cent of total emails according to a Symantec report released today.
The online security firm said that spam levels had “inched upwards” to account for a whopping 70 per cent of all emails sent last month, up from 69 per cent in August.
While Symantec - maker of the popular Norton security suites (www.Symantec.com) - saw image and PDF based spam fall out of favour, down to only seven per cent of total spam emails, plain text spam increased in popularity.
The most common spam emails sent were those selling products and web services which accounted for 26 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. Scams, adult emails and fraud accounted for far less with 10 per cent, seven per cent and only three per cent respectively, though these emails pose a greater threat to users and families.
Symantec said that recent market problems in the US had already been seized upon by spammers: “The uncertainty in the housing market has not been ignored by spammers. Recently, Symantec has observed a plethora of spam mes¬sages which are trying to tap into the market uncertainty. The spam messages range from refinancing deals to offers on houses to asking users if the “equity” in their home is being used.”
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, warned: “The UK is facing a credit crisis similar to that in the US, with many people being turned down for credit and mortgages. With interest rates still high people need to be extra wary of any unsolicited emails offering cheap credit, or low-rate mortgages, and not give into temptation by replying to these false offers or phishing emails.
“Although using a spam filter and internet security suite stops the majority of spam emails from getting through, people need to be aware that they can’t stop them completely and should never reply to any unsolicited emails and make sure that their internet security is always up to date,” he advised.
“Also, many broadband providers such as BT (www.BT.com), AOL (www.AOL.co.uk) or Eclipse (www.Eclipse.net) offer free security as part of their broadband packages,” added Mr Phillips, “so customers should check to see if they’re already covered.”
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