Spam analysis by category, for week of Oct 2 - 9, 2011
Despite the takedown of several of the top spam botnets this year, spam levels have remained at the same level of 40%. Most spam this week was still promoting Russian and Ukrainian domains, pushing counterfeit drugs, pirated software, replica ripoff watches, malware exploits and dating scams.
There is a trend that began developing a few weeks ago. That is the registration of spam domains ending in .com.ua, which is a new type of Ukrainian domain. The domains being spamvertised with links ending in ".com.ua" are spamming pirated software, fake watches, Russian and Ukrainian dating scams, fake Cialis, Viagra and other illegal to import (into the US and Canada) prescription drugs.
There was a big decline in the amount of spam emails that actually carried a malware payload in an attachment. They were replaced with several threats that use links to exploit their victims, rather than attached files. The end result is the same for those tricked into clicking those links: bots and various Trojan downloaders.
I compile my spam statistics from my spam screening program MailWasher Pro, which I use to filter out spam, malware attachments and dangerous links, before downloading any messages to Windows Live Mail, which is my desktop email client. The categories represent custom spam filters which I write and publish.
The following are a list of categories of spam received this week, ranked by percentage, highest first.
Spam Statistics for October 2 - 9, 2011, inclusive, with percentages of spam by category of filter.
My Custom Blacklist: 13.64%
Male Enhancement: 18.18%
Ukrainian Spam Domains (.com.us): 9.09%
Viagra Spam: 4.55%
Pharmaceutical Spam: 10.91%
Cialis (counterfeit): 5.45%
Counterfeit Watches: 10.91%
Miscellaneous filters ("Other" category in MWP): 7.27%
Fake IRS Notices (Links to malware): 3.64%
Zip Attachments (Malware): 3.64%
Weight Loss scams (HCG):3.64%
Dating Scams (Russian and Ukrainian "women"): 3.64%
Updates to my Custom MailWasher Filters:
ACH Fraud,
Base 64 Encoded Body,
Dating Spam,
Russian Bride Scam.
New Filter: Fake IRS Notice
New Blacklist entries:
None this week
Note: I write and publish custom spam filters for both the old and new versions of MailWasher Pro.
I use and recommend MailWasher Pro (2011) to screen my incoming POP3 email for spam, scams and virus threats, before downloading anything to my Windows Live Mail email client.
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