Ads mentioning real estate tycoon Donald Trump and those hawking "Penis Patch" body enhancements were among the top 10 junk emails in 2005, according to a new survey released today by America Online.
Noticeably absent is porn.
"Porn is passe when it comes to spam," AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. Sexually suggestive emails took another tumble this year after slipping in popularity last year.
AOL says more than half-a-trillion spam emails were blocked by AOL filters, slightly above 2004 levels.
The number of junk emails reported by AOL's 26 million members worldwide has declined about 75 per cent since 2003.
AOL says emails using more sophisticated tactics that attempt to deceive recipients by purporting to be from a friend or a legitimate agency or bear subject lines such as "Your Mortgage Application is Ready" are also beginning to replace blatant product promotions.
AOL's postmaster, Charles Stiles, says spammers "are (employing) 'back alley' tactics, and they are doing it with a specialized team that's working overtime to hide the source of their spam by employing zombie PCs, bot-nets and using other nefarious tactics."
In 2005, AOL blocked an average of 1.5 billion spams per day. Approximately eight-in-10 emails received at its gateway were blocked as junk.
