My Spam analysis for June 15 - 21, 2009
This is the latest entry in my weekly series about classifications of spam, according to my custom filter rules used by MailWasher Pro. The categories are shown on the "Statistics" page > "Junk Mail," as a pie chart, based on my custom filters and blacklist. The amount of email flagged as spam is shown on the "Summary" page of Statistics.
The volume of spam coming to my various honeypots and user accounts has decreased again this week. This is probably attributable to the forced closure of Pricewert, a spam-friendly hosting company, where Botnet command and control (C&am;C) servers and malware hosting was carried out by its customers, with no action taken by the company to halt those activities. With the C&C controllers offline their Botnets cannot receive updates or new instructions and fall silent, like zombies. Spammers then find other means of delivering their crap to us.
The classifications of spam in my analysis can help you adjust your email filters according to what is most common, on a weekly basis. Much of the spam this week was for the fake pharmacies, which sell illicit and counterfeit pharmaceuticals, Nigerian 419 scams, and dating scams. Also, the volume of phishing scams targeting customers of various banks and credit cards remained strong again this week.
See my extended comments for this week's breakdown of spam by category, for June 15 - 21, 2009 and the latest additions to my custom MailWasher Pro filters
MailWasher Pro spam category breakdown for June 15 - 21, 2009. Spam amounted to 8% of my incoming email this week. This represents a 4% decrease from last week. This is attributable to the takedown of Pricewert hosting company, where several Botnet Command and Control servers were hosted.
| Known Spam Domains: | 29.41% |
|---|---|
| Dating Scams: | 17.65% |
| Phishing Scams (bank or credit card): | 11.76% |
| Misc. Pharmaceutical spam (inc. Viagra, Cialis, Levitra & misc. pills, pherimones & herbals): | 11.76% |
| Nigerian 419 Scams: | 5.88% |
| Male Enhancement Patches, etc: | 5.88% |
| Counterfeit Watches: | 5.88% |
| Known Spam (From or Body): | 5.88% |
| Stud scams: | 5.88% |
MailWasher Pro intercepts POP3 and IMAP email before you download it to your desktop email client (e.g: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail) and scans it for threats or spam content, then either manually or automatically deletes any messages matching your pre-determined criteria and custom filters. It is my primary line of defense against incoming spam, scams, phishing and exploit attacks. If you are not already using this fine anti-spam tool I invite to to read about it on my MailWasher Pro web page. You can download the latest version and try it for free for a month. Registration is only required once, for the life of the program.
To protect your computer from web pages rigged with exploit codes, malware in email attachments, dangerous links to hostile web pages, JavaScript redirects, Phishing scams, or router DNS attack codes, I recommend Trend Micro Internet Security. It has strong realtime monitoring modules that stop rootkits and spam Trojans from installing themselves into your operating system. Also known as PC-cillin, it is very frequently updated as new and altered malware definitions become available and it checks for web based threats and new malware definitions by searching secure online servers owned by Trend Micro. This is referred to as "in-the-cloud" security.
All of the spam and scams targeting my accounts were either automatically deleted by my custom MailWasher Pro spam filters, or if they made it through, was reported to SpamCop, of which I am a reporting member, and manually deleted. MailWasher Pro is able to forward messages marked as spam to SpamCop, which then sends a confirmation email to you, containing a link. You must click on the enclosed reporting link and open it in your browser, then manually submit your report. This is how SpamCop wants it done.
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Wiz's Blog is written by Bob "Wiz" Feinberg, an experienced freelance computer consultant, troubleshooter and webmaster. Wiz's specialty is in computer and website security. 