My Spam analysis for Sept 1 - 7, 2008
This is the latest entry in a series about classifications of spam, according to my custom filter rules used by the anti-spam tool, MailWasher Pro.
MailWasher Pro is a spam screening program that goes between your email servers and your desktop email client (application). It uses a variety of techniques to recognize what is and isn't spam, including a learning filter and user created custom filter rules. I personally write and use MailWasher Pro custom filters to detect and delete most incoming spam email. I have created and published a large assortment of spam filters which "plug-in" to MailWasher Pro, to flag or delete known spam. You can read about them, or download and use them in your own registered copy of MailWasher Pro.
MailWasher Pro has a "Statistics" display page that breaks down the types of spam it has deleted, listed by categories. Each program and user-created filter has a name and when a measurable percentage of spam is matched by a particular filter it shows up in the Statistics, with its percentage shown next to it. The percentages for various categories of spam listed below are taken from my MailWasher Pro "Statistics" page.
The category "Other Filters" combines several of my custom filters which did not receive enough spam to rate a measurable percentage, thus were all grouped into the one category called "Other Filters." Since I have a lot of custom filters and spam types do vary every week, the Other Filters category is always quite large, percentage-wise.
When it comes to major spam runs, sent entirely through zombie computers which are unwittingly members of Botnets, certain types of spam rise to the top of the threat list, every week or two. The most common type of spam this week (again) is male enhancement products, Viagra, Cialis and other drugs. The most common spam subject was "Solution for your sexual problems," or something including the words "Canadian Pharmacy."
For those who don't know, "Canadian Pharmacy" is a fake pharmacy, with fake accreditation banners, that is either hosted on compromised home or office computers (in Bot-nets), or on "bullet-proof" web hosting servers in China, Korea, Vietnam, Romania, Russia, or The Ukraine. The Canadian Pharmacy spam gang sells counterfeit drugs that could harm or even kill you, but certainly won't help you in the manner advertised.
The runner up again is spam for unsecured loans, credit cards, or debt reduction. These are scams. No legitimate company ever uses spam sent through botnets to advertise its financial services! Never, ever, ever buy anything that is "spamvertised!" Exploit video links and replica watches also kept showing up in measurable spam numbers this week. All of the spam and scams 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. I never have and never will buy anything that is Spamvertised!
MailWasher Pro spam category breakdown for Sept 1 - 7, 2008. Spam amounted to 56% of my incoming email this week.
Male enhancement spam (subject or body): | 35.59% |
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Pharmaceutical spam (inc. Viagra, Cialis, Levitra & misc. pills & herbals): | 22.88% |
Other filters: (See my MWP Filters page) | 14.00% |
Loans/Bankruptcy/Insurance Scams: | 13.14% |
Video Exploit links to Trojan download: | 6.35% |
Known Spam Subjects: | 1.69% |
Counterfeit Watches: | 2.54% |
Blacklisted Domains/Senders: (by pattern matching wildcard rules) | 2.54% |
DNS Blacklists: | 0.85% |
Bayesian learning filter: | 0.42% |
If you are reading this and wondering what you can do to reduce the huge volumes of spam emails that must be overwhelming your POP client inboxes, I recommend MailWasher Pro (with my downloadable custom filters) as an incoming email screener for your POP email program (Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Live Mail, Eudora, Mozilla and other stand-alone email programs).
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