Topic: Valentine spam levels leap

[Clive]

Valentine's Day-related spam has trebled since the beginning of February, according to security researchers.

At the beginning of the month, between two and three per cent of all spam intercepted by MessageLabs was related to Valentine's Day, but this figure jumped to nine per cent this week.

Much of the spam is being generated by the Cutwail botnet, MessageLabs said.

The Mega-D botnet, estimated to be the most active botnet in terms of generating spam email, has not been responsible for any Valentine spam so far.

"With one in every fifteen spam emails being a Valentine's message from Cutwail, this botnet loves this romantic time of year," said Paul Wood of MessageLabs, which is now owned by Symantec.

"Dedicating approximately ninety per cent of its output to Valentine-related spam, Cutwail is generating an estimated seven billion spam emails each day. This is possibly the largest volume of Valentine's Day spam even seen," Wood continued.

Earlier this week, Web User reported that the Waledac botnet, linked to the infamous Storm botnet, had been generating spam messages featuring cute puppies.


www.messagelabs.co.uk

[Rik]

You know, for a minute, I misread the second word of the subject.

[Simon]

Does that mean all these Valentine e-cards aren't real? 

[Rik]

There, there, let me have your address and I'll send you one.

[Simon]

   

[Rik]

 

I didn't say it would be from me. 

[Clive]

You know, for a minute, I misread the second word of the subject.

   easily done Rik.