spammers

Spam may be down, but cybercriminals are keeping busy launching more sophisticated attacks (PDF), according to McAfee's latest Threats Report.

Looking at 2011's final quarter, McAfee found that spam hit its lowest level in years, especially across popular targets such as the U.K., Brazil, Argentina, and South Korea. But the U.S. and Germany saw their rates inch up slightly.

And though spam levels have declined overall, junk mail is still a clear danger because of the increase in spearphishing, or more targeted attacks. In years past, spammers sent their payloads to a slew of random addresses, … Read more

The promise is seductive. Two of the biggest technology companies on the planet are combining forces to give their adoring fans free iPads and iPhones? Yes! And all you have to do is give up all your personal information for that chance.

That's what spam scammers are hoping you will do once you see the quasi-personal letter from everyone's favorite friend networker, Mark Zuckerberg. The e-mail will come off as somewhat legit, singling you out as a randomly selected winner of a one-time only promotional event sponsored by Facebook and Apple.

So, you've already won a free iPad or iPhone, but there's a catch. Mark Zuckerberg just needs your e-mail address, phone number, and other account information to confirm. And of course, the site that Zuckerberg chooses to use to acquire that information is not Facebook, but a random promotional company.… Read more

Think you're seeing less junk mail in your inbox these days? If so, it's not just your imagination.

The rate of spam across the world has hit close to a three-year low and now encompasses just 70 percent of all e-mails, according to Symantec's November Intelligence Report (PDF).

That number is a healthy drop from 2009 when spam accounted for 90 percent of all global e-mails. And it's close to the 68 percent level seen in late 2008 after the spam hosting ISP McColo was shut down.

In particular, pharmaceutical spam is at its lowest level … Read more

The successful takedown of the Rustock botnet cut the volume of spam across the world by one-third, according to Symantec's March 2011 MessageLabs Intelligence Report.

By the end of last year, the notorious botnet was responsible for sending out 44 billion spam messages per day, or more than 47 percent of the world's total output, making it the leading purveyor of spam. Though Rustock lost some steam this year, it still managed to send out more than 13 billion daily spam e-mails earlier this month prior to its takedown, said Symantec.

But legal actions by Microsoft and raids … Read more

Most people may think they're smart enough not to answer an obvious spam message. But is that really the case?

Almost one third of consumers questioned admitted answering e-mails they suspected were spam, says a survey released Wednesday by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG).

Among those who responded to spam, 17 percent said they clicked on it by mistake, 13 percent said they sent a note to the spammer to complain, while 12 percent said they were interested in the product or service.

The MAAWG's survey study, "A Look at Consumers' Awareness of Email Security and … Read more

Spam now accounts for 90.4 percent of all e-mail, according to a report released Monday from security vendor Symantec. This means that 1 out of every 1.1 e-mails is junk. The report also notes that spam shot up 5.1 percent just from April to May.

Symantec's May 2009 MessageLabs Intelligence report reveals other disturbing trends, as well. Rather than just hijack disreputable Web sites, cybercriminals now favor older and well-established domains to host their malware. The report says 84.6 percent of all domains blocked for malicious content are more than a year old. One type … Read more

Within the past 30 minutes, I have received Twitter follower notifications from a couple of high-profile Twitterers, or so it would seem.

The subject line of one reads "Duncan Riley is now following you on Twitter!" Upon clicking through to the profile, it's obvious that this is not the Duncan Riley that we know from The Inquisitr, but rather an impostor trying to cash in on affiliate rewards from the sale of the book, 5 Steps to Twitter Success. According to the book's site, which I am not going to link to here, it is authored … Read more

A convicted spammer who escaped from prison was found dead Thursday night, along with his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

Eddie Davidson, dubbed a "spam king," was sentenced to 21 months in prison in April after pleading guilty to falsifying header information to send spam e-mail, tax evasion, and criminal forfeiture, the Associated Press reported.

Police had been searching for Davidson since Sunday, when he escaped from a minimum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., 90 miles south of Denver, according to the AP.

Police responding to reports of gunshots found Davidson and his family in an SUV in a … Read more

A federal court on Tuesday sentenced a New York man to a 30-month prison term for sending unsolicited marketing e-mail to 1.2 million AOL subscribers, according to a Reuters report.

The court ordered Adam Vitale, 27, to also pay restitution of $180,000 to the Time Warner unit for violating federal antispam laws.

In 2005, Brooklyn resident Vitale and another man, Todd Moeller of New Jersey, cut a deal with a government informant to send junk e-mails that advertised a security computer program to nearly 1.3 million AOL subscriber addresses. Under that deal, the two men were to … Read more