Sex may still sell but the volume of porn spam continues to fall, according to email security firm Clearswift. The company’s latest spam index shows porn spam accounting for only 5 percent of all email monitored by the company. That’s four times less than when Clearswift first began its regular Spam Index tracking two years ago.
Clearswift research director Alyn Hockey said the decrease may not be surprising. "Even the most basic spam filters can pick up sexual images, but it’s far easier to disguise spam selling healthcare products as legitimate mail," he said announcing the latest index results.
"It’s a relief that our inboxes aren’t as peppered with filth as they once were, but we shouldn’t become complacent," Hockey continued. "Viruses and spyware use spam email 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."
General healthcare-related spam and financial-related spam continued battling for the top positions by wide margins, with the current Clearswift index showing health spam accounting for 44 percent and finance accounting for 38 percent—totaling more than 80 percent of the full spam volume, based on an analysis of more than 20,000 individual emails.
While porn is falling, sex is still high on the spam parade: Most of the health spam promoted libido enhancers.
A rising spam trend, according to Clearswift, seems to be a one-hit wonder trend: fleeting appearances of spam pushing things like pet-care products, high-quality tobacco products, and even Egyptian sheets. On the other hand, certain luxury items – particularly Rolex watches and replicas – remain popular with spammers, as do eBay and PayPal-related scams.
Also making an appearance is Christian dating-site spam, which is among what Clearswift called the "strangest" spam seen in the reporting period, even though such spam has had a small, recurring presence for at least two years.
