Unwanted Valentines Flood Inboxes
Spam multiplied nearly 3 percent from December 2002 to January 2003, and a proliferation of Valentine's Day attacks suggests another increase in February.
Spam multiplied nearly 3 percent from December 2002 to January 2003, and a proliferation of Valentine's Day attacks suggests another increase in February.
Spam multiplied nearly 3 percent from December 2002 to January 2003, according to measurements from Brightmail, and a proliferation of Valentine’s Day attacks suggests another increase in February.
Brightmail blocked more than 1,500 spam attacks related to Valentine’s Day since January 24th, 2003, adding up to more than 1 million spam messages in 20 days. Unwanted Valentines fell into the following predictable categories:
“Spammers are becoming more sophisticated and pervasive. Seasonally targeted spam is not uncommon, but Valentine’s related messages came in remarkably high volumes this year,” said Enrique Salem, president and CEO of Brightmail. “As spammers seek to tap consumer holiday spending, email users, companies and service providers suffer a barrage of unwanted and potentially offensive messages.”
| January 2003 Spam Category Data | |
|---|---|
| Products | 33% |
| Financial | 24% |
| Adult | 18% |
| Other | 8% |
| Scams | 5% |
| Health | 4% |
| Leisure | 3% |
| Internet | 3% |
| Spiritual | 2% |
| Source: Brightmail’s Probe Network | |
Brightmail defines the categories as follows:
| Unique Spam Attacks | |
|---|---|
| January 2003 | 6,092,514 |
| December 2002 | 5,915,062 |
| November 2002 | 5,503,246 |
| October 2002 | 5,352,325 |
| September 2002 | 5,285,404 |
| August 2002 | 5,065,858 |
| July 2002 | 4,971,097 |
| June 2002 | 4,825,144 |
| May 2002 | 4,686,983 |
| April 2002 | 4,339,799 |
| March 2002 | 3,773,738 |
| February 2002 | 3,187,430 |
| January 2002 | 2,777,017 |
| Source: Brightmail’s Probe Network | |
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