Desperate housewives spam used to spread spyware
There has been a sharp increase in spam messages purporting to offer the details of women looking for casual sex in recent weeks. But surfers hoping to hook up to swingers are actually directed to pornographic websites, which often harbour spyware, email security firm Clearswift warned Tuesday.
The ruse is one of the latest additions to the spammers’ armoury, and has led to a rise in sex-themed spam from 10 in January to 18 per cent in February 2005. “Aside from the fact that these mails are bogus, clicking on any link within a spam mail can lead to a whole host of unwanted problems. They frequently contain malicious programs including spyware or rogue internet diallers which can run up huge, unexpected bills,” said Alyn Hockey, Clearswift’s Director of Research.
Sex-themed emails have risen in prominence at the expense of a range of bizarre products seen post-Christmas - including a dog-translator and a device which turned a coffee table into a kennel - which has completely dried up. The direct products category has declined slightly from an estimated 17.85 per cent of junk mail messages in January to 14.47 per cent in February 2005, with software product spams occupying the lion’s share of the segment. One new arrival, however, is phoney Sony PSP giveaways.