Spam still accounts for up to 90 per cent of all email

COMMTOUCH HAS let loose the figures for the most popular spam trends in the first quarter of this year.

As anyone with an email account will know, there's still plenty of spam around: 85-90 per cent of all global email is still spam, and viagra along with other "sexual enhancers" are still the top spam category. Coming in at second place are stock "pump-and-dump" scams, while the latest spammer trick, says Commtouch, is hijacked newsletter spam.

Newsletter spam is the latest trick that tries to get around all the bog-standard anti-spam programs, says Commtouch President Amir Lev. Quoth Lev: "Fighting spam on a trick-per-trick basis is futile. The spammer innovation cycle is so fast and sophisticated, that as soon as traditional anti-spam solutions come up with a way to block the latest trick, the spammers have already thought of something new."

"Massive botnets continue to be the force behind most global spam," Lev said, confirming what everyone pretty much knew anyway.

If you'd like to know more about exciting spammy things, you can check out this Commtouch PDF here. µ