This rise in picture-based spam coincides with the decline of messages containing embedded URL links, the study claims.
In 2004, 96 percent of spam messages included a website hyperlink for the recipient to click. This figure has dropped to just over half, according to the research.
Spammers are constantly morphing their practices to overcome anti-spam filters, said Bradley Anstis, director of product management for Marshal. And we can expect image spam levels to continue to increase this year.