May 2009 State of Spam Report Released: Spam Pandemic Continues

Spam volumes continue to creep back up to normal, and are currently sitting at 94 percent of their pre-McColo levels. The recent swine flu outbreak has become yet another example of how spam continues to respond to current events. The use of the swinef flu outbreak in this manner is yet another case of history repeating itself, since it follows closely on the spammer’s abuse of the Italian earthquake and the U.S. tax day.

In another example of history repeating itself, image spam has recently made an unwelcome return.  While it has not yet returned to the dizzying heights of January 2007, when it reached 52 percent of all spam messages, image spam hit an average of sixteen percent of all spam messages towards the end of April 2009.

Click here to download the May 2009 State of Spam Report, which highlights the following trends:

• Swine Flu Outbreak Results in Swine Flu Spam Outbreak
• Image Spam Makes an Unwelcome Return
• Spammer’s Opinion Poll: President Obama’s First 100 Days in Office
• Mother’s day spam – May 2009
• Zombie Host IP Activity April 2009

• As One Free Web Service is Closed – Spammers Find More Free Services to Abuse

Also, please be sure to check out the quarterly State of Spam video, which is now available here.