After one of the quietest spam periods in Commtouch recorded history, spammers are clearly back at work. The quiet period neatly matches the Christmas-New Year holiday season but also seems to add the Russian New Year and Russian Orthodox Christmas (Friday 7th of January). Outbreaks resumed on the 9th. The

In October we reported an 18% drop in global spam levels (comparing September and October). This was largely attributed to the closure of Spamit around the end of September. Spamit is the organization allegedly behind a fair percentage of the worlds pharmacy spam. According to reports in October, the reasons

Commtouch’s friends and family aren’t immune to receiving suspect messages. The Commtouch team was recently asked to check out an email that a friend had received. The email offered her a job for which she did not apply.  So what’s the position? – Payment Processing Agent – to help secure

Last week we announced the release of our latest software version. The release includes a new feature called “Mail Sort” – the idea is that our Anti-Spam product will now flag messages that are legitimate, but mass mailed – like newsletters. Our partners can then offer “priority mail” functionality to

Cybercriminals are the ultimate marketers, trying hundreds – if not thousands – of different ways to appeal to their victims, from using trusted brand to hijacking the email accounts of our friends and colleagues, increasing the likelihood that we’ll open their spam, malware, or phishing emails. Of course, the sender

Hot on the heels of the announcement by Time magazine of Mark Zuckerberg as “person of the year”, “WESPAM” has hailed Facebook as “Application of the Year”. We once again spoke to Mr. BuyVi@ GraNow – head of WESPAM (Worldwide Excess Senders of Phony Applications and Mail). WESPAM claims to

Jolly ol’ St. Nick is not pleased. Cybercriminals have hijacked Santa Claus. If a letter from Santa is on your to-do list, we remind you that many legitimate websites offer to send these letters. We recommend you seek them out and not trust the ones that come to your inbox.

We came across this website offering cracks, keygens and serial numbers for various applications. As a rule, we advise users to avoid these sites as they clearly will want something in return for the “free information” (not to mention software copyright issues). The website http:/ /xpokey.com (provided by Worldstream, Netherlands)

The holiday season is upon us, bringing excitement (and presents) for kids of all ages. Naturally, cybercriminals are abusing the spirit of giving for their own evil ends. We’re seeing typical spam – weight loss, financial scams, and pharmacy offers – wrapped in the Christmas spirit. First off – there

It’s been a while since we’ve seen these – but they are so pretty and creative that we feel obliged to write about them. We are referring to ASCII art spam emails. ASCII art (for those who don’t know how to open nfo files) uses cleverly arranged standard keyboard characters