Spam Reflects the Economy

Spammers are opportunists. They are among the ‘first responders’ to take advantage of disasters, whether man-made or natural. In the midst of this staggering economy, finances, employment and related matters have become the spammers’ lure:

“The economy remains the main topic spammers focus on to lure users into opening emails with malicious links, according to Symantec’s March 2009 “State of Spam” report.

“It’s something the spammers are latching onto to get into a victim’s inbox,” Dermot Harnett, principal analyst of anti-spam engineering at Symantec, told SCMagazineUS.com on Tuesday.”

link: Spam attacks focus on victims’ economic gloom

Perhaps the spammers are taking the Latrell Sprewell approach to this economic chaos. Latrell Sprewell, a former basketball player who was making millions of dollars as a professional athlete, is famous for saying: “…I’ve got my family to feed“. The expectation is that the spam will remain focused on economic issues and may increase, as spammers too feel the hardships of this economy.

Catherine Forsythe