Spam victims long for the 'bad old days'

The face of spam and the nature of unsolicited email is still evolving as the overall amount in circulation continues to rise.

It's been 12 months since spam really burst into the public consciousness. Before then it had certainly been a well-publicised problem, but often only with the more tech-savvy while the wider public had far more questions than answers about strange mail appearing in their inbox.

Then last summer the level of spam passed the important watershed of the 50 per cent mark - meaning more email traffic was unsolicited than not. For every 100 emails the average user was receiving more than 50 that were offering everything from pornographic content to college diplomas.

Since shattering that 50 per cent mark the level of global spam email has continued to skyrocket. By most measures that figure is now somewhere around 75 per cent.

But perhaps the biggest change in the spam world has been in the types of emails users are seeing. According to the latest figures from Clearswift, the traditional mainstays of the inbox menace - namely pornography and more frivolous offers - are being replaced by financial services, scams and pharmaceuticals which despite the best advice of the 'don't buy from spammers' lobby still seem to have some traction in the marketplace.

According to Alyn Hockey, product director at Clearswift, one reason for this is that such products will always appeal to those who can't face getting hold of such products through the proper channels.

"The marketers behind these spam campaigns are trading on people's embarrassment," said Hockey. "The thing about the internet is that it guarantees anonymity and a lot of people would rather try to buy their Viagra like that than go and see their family GP and discuss very personal problems," he said.

Financial offers and pharmaceuticals now make up 69.6 per cent of spam between them, compared to 39.2 per cent 12 months ago.

'Pump and dump' share tipping - spamming out 'buy' recommendations to grow share prices with a view to a quick sale - have also become commonplace according to Clearswift - marking a move away from scattergun marketing of 'any old rubbish' to more shrewd ways of making money from spam. Similarly 'phishing' scams have also reached epidemic levels. Clearswift attributes these trends to an increasing involvement in spam activities by organised crime groups.

Other evolutions over the past 12 months have seen growing deviousness in the methods of spammers, who are even installing spyware on users' computers to harvest more personal information and tailor subject lines in an attempt to get more recipients clicking on their emails.