Spam takes a summer holiday

Inbox-clogging unwanted mail is falling as spammers attempt a more direct form of attack.

"Although the user is becoming more knowledgeable in their approach to spam, the spammers are at least one step ahead," said Clive Longbottom, principal analyst at Quocirca. "The rise in phishing Spam is the most worrying, as this is often quite sophisticated – and has the highest financial repercussions for users. It is of massive importance that users have suitable anti-spam capabilities in place."

Phishing emails went up from nine percent to 12.5 percent of all incoming mail. Mortgage and loan spam is still the most popular, but its share has fallen from nearly half to only a third of emails.

Ipswitch, which commissioned the survey said that productivity can be adversely affected by even small amounts of messaging spam, as staff wade through email inboxes.

Earlier this month SC reported spammers are switching from the hard sell to scaring the wits out of unsuspecting people. Emails containing alarmist messages are on the rise.

www.ipswitch.com