Spam news in 2012

Spam has been in the news since the beginning of 2012. This unwanted e-mail continues to wreak havoc with Internet users.

France ranks second in Europe for spam relays

India far surpassed the USA in global spamming during the second quarter of 2012. In all, more than 11% of the world’s spam passes through this country. It’s worth noting that the United States has been number one in recent years. But over this period, spam relayed by the country’s botnets shows a gradual decline. Italy is in second place, and South Korea occupies the last step of the podium.

On the European continent, France is second only to Italy in terms of spam relays. During the second quarter of 2012, 3.1% of spam passed through French botnets. At the start of the year, the country was still a long way off the list of 12 countries considered to be the world’s biggest spammers.

Spamming software in the App store

Recently, a malicious application called Find and Call was identified on the Apple AppStore. By downloading it, users can better organize their contact list. Instead, spammers retrieve their data and transfer it to their mail server. Next, they use the recovered contacts to run a spam e-mail or telephone campaign, using the source telephone number as the recipient in order to trick the recipient.

Social spam: very popular on social networks

Social networks are increasingly popular with users. While some manage to counter spam effectively, others can’t prevent the invasion of social spam. According to statistics from security software publishers, almost 16% of e-mail messages circulating on social networks are spam. What’s more, 4 out of 10 accounts have been created for spamming purposes.

To deceive users’ vigilance, spammers hide their malicious links in the photos they publish on their page. To better combat this scourge, some social networks have set up a button enabling users to report spam to better protect all members.

Tougher penalties for spam on social networks

A major social network has taken a further step in the fight against spam by extending the period during which users can be blocked for multiple reports. While this used to be one week, it has been extended to 30 days in recent months. Any user who has posted the same message repeatedly, or who has posted an “inappropriate or irrelevant” message, will be subject to this temporary shutdown, and will not be able to post any more messages for the duration of the shutdown. Unfortunately, there is no recourse in the event of false positives.