Ireland Sees Record Increase In Spam Rate

Irish inboxes were inundated with spam emails in March 2007, the rate is considered to be highest ever as per the latest statistics released by IE Internet -a technology company.

Spam rates have jumped from 21 percent in March 2004 to over 64 percent last month.

However the spam rate in February 2007, a month considered as red-letter month for scammers since they exploit St. Valentine's Day cover for spamming, remained 62 percent. Viewing the spam rate for March 2007, it can be said that it had broken all the records so far.

According to Ken O'Driscoll, IE Internet's chief technical officer, Spam isn't a small business today. This very fact that Ireland saw such an alarming rise in spam over the last three years (2004-2006) implies that emails have become an increasingly convincing tool for people to concede money. This statement appeared on 2 April 2007 in electricnews.net.

Also scammers have been exceptionally quick in adapting. Now they can easily evade detection by various conventional spam filters.

The United States was once again the foremost spam source, making up for almost 20 percent more spam in comparison to February this year. This rise is most probably due to the renaissance of a zombie that existed previously. The zombie exploits a collection of commandeered machines for sending out spam without even letting its owner know it, IE Internet said.

O'Driscoll went on to say that scammers and their seekers have profiled users who're most inclined towards purchasing goods by means of spam. Generally falling under the age of 35, these users don't find shopping online a risky affair, and consider US$ 30 to be an acceptable amount while making an online purchase via spam.

The rate of virus remained much low at nearly 7 percent during March 2007. There're least new viruses that came in to view and thus the virus infections were also fewer.

It would be of great interest to view how the rate of virus would progress in the year to come since more new machines come armed with Microsoft Vista - an OS with enhanced protection from viruses, said O'Driscoll.

Related article: Ireland Spam Touches Peak in October 2007

» SPAMfighter News - 4/11/2007