Gmail Spam on the Rise

2010-04-14

Network World is reporting that Gmail spam is on the rise because of spammers using fake Gmail accounts to clog up inboxes - making Gmail.com the most abused domain name according to Commtouch's quarterly Internet Threats Trend Report. The report reveals:

- Between 5 to 10% of all spam appears to originate from Gmail accounts. Addresses are typically faked in order to fool anti-spam systems.

- Only 1% of spam emails sent from Gmail addresses are actually from real Gmail accounts and this small percentage is likely to represent a mix of spammers and compromised Gmail accounts.

- In the first three months of 2010, 83% of all email traffic was spam - peaking at nearly 92% near the end of March and bottoming out at 75% at the beginning of the year.

- On a daily basis 305,000 zombie computers (devices taken over by hackers and joined to a botnet) are used to inflict malicious activity. And Brazil is said to produce the most zombie computers with 14% of the global total.

- "Pornography" has replaced "business" as the Web site category most infected with malware.

- Pharmacy spam advertising medications such as Viagra represent 81% of all spam messages - which is the same average from last quarter's report.

Asaf Greiner, Commtouch vice president products, stated "Spammers and cybercriminals use experimentation to reach their goals. They are always testing new techniques to lure their victims, from using familiar formats and domains to creating entirely new ways to entice action."