Email Spam was at it’s highest in the Month of February!

Email spam traffic was up 4.2 percentage points and averaged 69.9% in the month of February.  Internet spam mail has taken over most advertisements for Valentine’s Day.

Consumers were caught off guard during the panic to try and find their Valentine the perfect gift.

Spammers sent out Valentine’s Day offers in February, while ‘Nigerian‘ scammers took advantage of the political situation in Ukraine.  The scams would consist of tricking people out of their money because of the tragic events happening in the country.

Stories told about tourists who have been robbed is the universal approach to scamming people out of their money.

Many holiday themed spam arose during the month of February, which adverted users to sites for fake designer goods, flowers, and gourmet sweets.

The fraudulent email offered a chance to earn a large sum of money after the holiday gift was purchased.  It was a ploy, no money was intended to be given.

It is expected for March to receive more holiday themed spam pertaining to St. Patrick’s Day.  Online buyers often make purchases for holidays and themed parties from unknown sources and small businesses.

 

Vision Correction

Vision correction spam also redirects users to fraudulent sites.  Messages on promotional flyers created to steal your information when you fill out the  form for more information on the fake offer.

 

Office Supply Stores

A series of spam offers for printer and copier cartridges at greatly discounted prices have also increased on the web.  Many businesses are now using their own machinery to create and print products.  This has opened the market up for the opportunity for fraudulent advertisements to target businesses.

Most often we expect spam in our inbox’s email and with a poorly written plea for help.  Now we are seeing well designed advertisements luring poor victims to fall for their offers.

Mass spam email in English, Swedish and other languages are offering these same types of advertisements for printers, cartridges, and other major office supply equipment.  Not all offers with discount coupons or short-term promotions are going to save you money.

 

Spam Source

This is the list of sources distributing spam worldwide in as of February.

In February the Top 10 malicous programs that spread via email as follows:

Programs distributed the email sending notifications from major commercial banks, e-stores, and software developers.

Its crucial for consumers to research the company they are interested in purchasing from.  Emails with malicious attachments contained both fake notifications from popular social media sites and ‘online dating’ emails, whose number increased in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.

If these campaigns are successful, they will come out a few hundred dollars richer and you are left with nothing but the bill.

Have you run across this type of spam on the Internet?  Please let us know in the comments below!

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References:
Spam report: February 2014 – Secure List
http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792328/Spam_report_February_2014