Porn Plummets as Spammers Look To Dating Services & Financial Scams in February
Email Management specialist Email Systems has unveiled new statistics which reveal that pornographic spam mail dropped by a massive 92.5% during February, whilst unsolicited emails offering dating (+171%), financial services (+107%) and scam (+70%) opportunities have all increased significantly.
Spam as a whole has continued to increase this month, with an average of 92.08% of all incoming email being identified as spam, versus an average of just under 90% during January 2005. These figures, which represent the first monthly average above 90%, are based on the detailed analysis of hundreds of millions of emails across Email Systems’ client base, spanning sectors such as Construction, Energy Utilities, Financial Services, IT, Manufacturing, Medical and the Public Sector amongst others.
On Sunday 6th February – the worst point during February – Spam reached a staggering 97.6% of all email traffic. Combined with 0.61% of virus traffic on that day, fewer than one in fifty-five emails were legitimate. At February’s high point on Thursday February 24th, legitimate email comprised 12.42% of email, with spam at 85.83% and virus traffic at 1.74%.
Medical and pharmaceutical-related spam remains the most prevalent type of unsolicited mail, with almost one in two (46.68%) of all spam mails currently being of this type. In addition to those mentioned above, other spam categories during February include educational/degree offers, cheap software, travel and religious emails.
Neil Hammerton, CEO of Email Systems, said:
“The drop in pornographic spam is incredible considering that this type of mail was the most prevalent type of spam just over a year ago. The change indicates how spam as a whole has shifted towards overtly promoting scams, financial incentives, cheap products and other consumer-focussed opportunities in an attempt to encourage mainstream recipients to part with their cash.
“In contrast to the ever-increasing spam numbers, the virus figures seem extremely low by comparison. However, although the proportion has decreased, the amount of virus traffic has actually increased since late 2004, which again underlines the massive quantities of spam that are now being distributed each day.”
Email Systems manages and monitors the flow of spam and virus infected email messages on behalf of millions of corporate, public sector and domestic users across the UK. For more information, visit www.EmailSystems.com or call 0870 141 7070.
About Email Systems:
Email Systems offers a comprehensive range of best-of-breed email management and protection services that are available either individually or as a modular package for Enterprise, Home and ISP customers. These include archiving, image scanning and encryption, in addition to core anti-spam and anti-virus services. Email Systems’ web-based solutions ensure that clients need not download or manage software on their PC or server, offering complete peace of mind with no effort required. Email Systems is continually developing technical partnerships with global market leaders, such as Commtouch, which offers unique Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology to analyse large volumes of Internet traffic in real time, protecting customers from the first seconds of a spam or virus outbreak. Email Systems has offices in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden.