CSA
01-11-2009, 11:05 AM
Anyone receiving emails will have noticed a spike in both spam, scam and phishing emails during the first weeks of 2009. The problem seems even more prevalent if you're a webmaster.
In fact, I have some email adresses specifically designed to trap these types of nuisance emails.
Despite a number o large spam sites having been closed down in 2008 there seems to be a resurgence of these types of nuisance eMails with the main centres begin the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Poland (at least so far in 2009) and though the Nigerian 419 scam is still there the eMails seem to originate in Hong Kong.
But that's only the first weeks of 2009... so far. The problem isn't so much the fraud and phishing attempts themselves but the perception that all and any emails sent can be suspect. Indeed, in most cases the scammers make less money from their scamming attempts than they would if they had a proper on-line job. It's just the volume of garbage being sent puts everyone off and actually shrinks the overall internet market.
Common sense is something that cannot be learned. If people used their brain and actually thought about what the email said they would just delete it. Unfortunately, there are too many people who are not too bright and are easily tricked. Shameful!
We're only on day ten of 2009, and MessageLabs (owned by Symantec) is already telling me that it has detected a significant spike in email fraud and financial scams compared to last year. In the first week, messages with subjects like "Congratulations New Year winner! You have won the UK National Lottery" make up nearly 10% of all e-mail, three times what it was in the first two weeks of 2008.
"The new year means new opportunities for spammers," says Paul Wood, Senior Analyst, MessageLabs. "As the economic climate continues to be frosty and the inability to secure credit through official channels remains spammers are tempted by the possibility that consumers facing uncertain futures may be more tempted by some of these hard-to-resist offers."
It is hard to believe these types of scams are still going full throttle, let alone growing so significantly. Yet the numbers lay it out: UP 10.25%
MessageLabs notes that the scams are getting easier to read and less verbose, as to be more cunning in their attempts to trick unsuspecting victims. All of you potential victims out there, how many people do you know that have just come into large sums of money and been notified simply by an email from a stranger? Think these things out. There must be people still falling for these things or they would become extinct.
The last line says it all "There must be people still falling for these things or they would become extinct."
As a webmaster, I get tired of dealing with this type of crap, like it's my fault you get email spam. If there wern't so many idiots out there we wouldn't have all this. Or better yet, revamp the email system so spammers cannot hide so easily. I'd gladly thow out the baby with the bathwater and start over with a sytem to stop spammers once and for all. Then all we have to do is get rid of the idiots.......
We are also at a point where no one seem to trust even legitimate business email messages that contain a contact name, telephone number and business address.
In fact, I have some email adresses specifically designed to trap these types of nuisance emails.
Despite a number o large spam sites having been closed down in 2008 there seems to be a resurgence of these types of nuisance eMails with the main centres begin the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Poland (at least so far in 2009) and though the Nigerian 419 scam is still there the eMails seem to originate in Hong Kong.
But that's only the first weeks of 2009... so far. The problem isn't so much the fraud and phishing attempts themselves but the perception that all and any emails sent can be suspect. Indeed, in most cases the scammers make less money from their scamming attempts than they would if they had a proper on-line job. It's just the volume of garbage being sent puts everyone off and actually shrinks the overall internet market.
Common sense is something that cannot be learned. If people used their brain and actually thought about what the email said they would just delete it. Unfortunately, there are too many people who are not too bright and are easily tricked. Shameful!
We're only on day ten of 2009, and MessageLabs (owned by Symantec) is already telling me that it has detected a significant spike in email fraud and financial scams compared to last year. In the first week, messages with subjects like "Congratulations New Year winner! You have won the UK National Lottery" make up nearly 10% of all e-mail, three times what it was in the first two weeks of 2008.
"The new year means new opportunities for spammers," says Paul Wood, Senior Analyst, MessageLabs. "As the economic climate continues to be frosty and the inability to secure credit through official channels remains spammers are tempted by the possibility that consumers facing uncertain futures may be more tempted by some of these hard-to-resist offers."
It is hard to believe these types of scams are still going full throttle, let alone growing so significantly. Yet the numbers lay it out: UP 10.25%
MessageLabs notes that the scams are getting easier to read and less verbose, as to be more cunning in their attempts to trick unsuspecting victims. All of you potential victims out there, how many people do you know that have just come into large sums of money and been notified simply by an email from a stranger? Think these things out. There must be people still falling for these things or they would become extinct.
The last line says it all "There must be people still falling for these things or they would become extinct."
As a webmaster, I get tired of dealing with this type of crap, like it's my fault you get email spam. If there wern't so many idiots out there we wouldn't have all this. Or better yet, revamp the email system so spammers cannot hide so easily. I'd gladly thow out the baby with the bathwater and start over with a sytem to stop spammers once and for all. Then all we have to do is get rid of the idiots.......
We are also at a point where no one seem to trust even legitimate business email messages that contain a contact name, telephone number and business address.