According to recent reports released by MessageLabs and its parent company, Symantec, Idaho is the most-spammed state in the U.S., while holiday spam has begun honing in on Halloween and Christmas.
Idaho took the crown of the “spam capital of the U.S.” wit 93.8 percent of spam in September, higher than the global spam rate of 86.4 percent during the month, according to MessageLabs. The company also notes that the state has jumped 43 spots since 2008.
Kentucky was second with 93.0 percent, followed by New Jersey with 92.8 percent, Alabama with 91.9 percent, Illinois with 91.6 percent, Indiana with 91.0 percent, Massachusetts with 90.9 percent, Pennsylvania with 90.5 percent , Arizona with 90.4 percent and Maryland with 90.3 percent.
“Interestingly, the top three most spammed states were among the ten least spammed states in 2008,” the report notes. “The difference can be attributed to the resilient and aggressive botnet market as well as a higher volume of global spam that has ensued since the beginning of the credit crisis toward the end of 2008.”
Puerto Rico was the least spammed U.S. territory with 83.1 percent of spam. It has held this position since 2008.
It was followed by Montana, Alaska, Kansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Rhone Island (tie), Wisconsin, and Iowa and Florida (tie).
The most spammed industries in the U.S. are Marketing, Wholesale, Recreation, Engineering and Real Estate, according to MessageLabs.
The least spammed industries are Chemical and Pharmaceutical, Agriculture, Public Sector, Transportation and Healthcare.
The report says that the areas of the country with the highest levels of spam “are generally those locations that are populated with a higher density of small-to-medium sized businesses. Similarly, the least spammed places are often home to some of the largest companies.”
Between 4 million and 6 million computers around the world have been compromised by cybercriminals without the user’s knowledge, according to MessageLabs. “These computers now form robotic networks – Botnets, which are controlled by cybercriminals and used to send
out more than 87% of all unsolicited mail, equating to approximately 151 billion emails a day.”
Symantec reports that with the conclusion of back-to-school campaigns, spammers are shifting gears to focus on holiday campaigns for Halloween and Christmas.
Subject lines for these messages include:
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Hello Halloween + Summer Sale, $3.99 and under!
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Labor Day Sale
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Sign Up for Our Halloween Workshop for Party Plans, Pumpkins, Decorations, and More!
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Biggest deal this Halloween
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Halloween discount
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It's new improved crazy Christmas
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Halloween great offers
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It's new improved crazy Christmas
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Halloween Already? Yes! Special Florida family coupons from Extreme Halloween
“Delivery Status Nofication (Failure)” was the top spam subject line in August, followed by “Delivery Status Notification” and “Re: Order Status.”
The U.S. accounted for 23 percent of the world’s spam, making it the king country of spam. Brazil was second with 12 percent, followed by South Korea with 5 percent, India with 4 percent, Poland with 4 percent, Vietnam with 3 percent, Turkey with 3 percent, China with 3 percent, Argentina with 2 percent and Colombia with 2 percent.
The Internet category was the most spammed category at 29.30 percent, followed by Financial with 19.68 percent, Products with 18.30 percent, 419 spam with 9.23 percent, Health with 6.73 percent and Fraud with 6.55 percent.
Sources:
http://www.messagelabs.com/intelligence.aspx
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/09/24/top-10-most-spammed-states-in-the-us
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