Recent Decline in Spam Not a Long-term Affair

According to Security Company Soft Scan, provider of e-mail security, spam levels came down in January 2008, following a peak in December 2007. But the company has warned consumers that this is a situation only of calm before being taken over by a storm. Precisionmarketing.co.uk reported this on February 11, 2008.

The report by Soft Scan shows that the percentage drop of unsolicited e-mails sent in January 2008 was at 96.8% following a peak rate of 97.2% during December 2007. In the opinion of the security company, this shrink is partly due to replacement of infected machines by new, clean systems during Christmas.

However, this is likely a calm period in advance of the next virulent spam, especially when Valentine's Day is round the corner. With Valentines' Day spam accounting for nearly 2% of daily spam sent worldwide, this year's Valentine's Day is just another opportunity that spammers have for taking advantage of their victims.

Hence, security professionals at Soft Scan are warning that this lull in spam messages is only temporary, signaling a false respite. Statistics from Soft Scan suggest that the overall level of spam has dropped only marginally with fewer spam mails been circulated in January 2008 compared to that in December 2007.

According to Chief Technology Officer, Diego d'Ambra, of Soft Scan, this reduced spamming activity has no indication of its long-term stay. The trend only implies that spammers are fully satisfied with the information they have gathered till now and don't find the need to send further spam; alternatively, they are occupied in developing new tactics. Precisionmarketing.co.uk published d'Ambra's statement on February 11, 2008.

D'Ambra said that although it is not expected that the December's high level would return just now, but that will only be a matter of few months.

Further, d'Ambra pointed out that part of the decline in spam is because many people got new computers for Christmas. This implies that the old PCs that were turned into 'bots' were now disconnected from the Internet. There are, of course, other factors too responsible for the decline in spam. Webuser.co.uk reported this on February 8, 2008.

Related article: Recent Natural Calamities in The US Might Give Rise to Online Scams

» SPAMfighter News - 2/16/2008