Sex Emails Come in New Flavors

Latest Spam Index from Internet security company Clearswift reveals pornography spam is down, health care and financial mailings are up.

So you’re getting less porn in your inbox these days, huh? Maybe more health care spam though, especially related to those special “nighttime lifestyle enhancement“ pills? Clearswift, an Internet security company, today released the results of their monthly Spam Index, giving us some interesting figures about changes in spam trends.

The company said that when they first began the study in June 2003, health care and also financial spam together made up only 39% of spam. Their analysis though of spam tracked last month showed that the two combined now made up more than 80% of the total. Consequently, pornography related mailings, apart from occasional fluctuations, now only account for 5%.

The reason? Clearswift says that with most spam filters now easily blocking most sex related emails, spammers have shifted their sights upon health care and financial offerings. These newer types of spam are “tried and tested money earners” which seem more likely to draw interested click-throughs.

Other interesting, though fleeting, trends in the Spam Index recently include a spike in dog-related spam in May and cigars and Egyptian sheets appearing on the radar for the first time this month.

“Perhaps it’s no surprise that porn’s on the wane,” said Alyn Hockey, director of research, Clearswift. “Even the most basic spam filters can pick up sexual images, but it’s far easier to disguise spam selling health care products as legitimate mail.”

“It’s a relief that our inboxes aren’t as peppered with filth as they once were,” continued Alyn, “but we shouldn’t become complacent. Viruses and spyware use spam e-mail to spread, so businesses of all sizes must ensure they deploy the most robust content filtering software possible to ensure all spam is weeded out.”