Celebrities are great spam bait, McAfee notes in its “January 2010 Spam Report.” Though they’re “often treated in a less than dignified manner,” the company decided to take a simple look at the top male and female celebrities who appeared in spam subject lines in 2009.
Angelina Jolie was the most popular woman in spam, followed by Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus.
Rihanna, Avril Lavigne, Madonna, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Simpson rounded out the top 10. Also on the list were the likes of Emma Watson, Lindsay Lohan, Condoleeza Rice, the Olsen Twins and Alicia Silverstone.
On the men’s side, President Barack Obama topped the list and was the only celebrity to outdo Angelina Jolie overall. Obama was followed by Michael Jackson, George Bush, Brad Pitt and Eminem.
Warren Buffet, Chuck Norris, Don Juan, Elton John and Sacha Baron Cohen filled in the rest of the top 10.
Pope Benedict XVI, Kobe Bryant, Mickey Rourke, Mike Tyson and Johnny Depp were among the other male celebrities to be featured in their fair share of spam subject lines in 2009, according to McAfee.
The report also highlighted .spaces.live.com as the leading domain for spam landing pages at the end of 2009, followed by .cn domains, livejournal.com domains and blogspot.com domains.
Pfizer-related spam also saw a boost starting on Dec. 14, 2009, when spam messages with the subject line “Pfizer 80% OFF” began “clogging spam filters everywhere.” The messages were sent from China and have tapered off considerably since they began being sent.
The company also notes that spammers are making a rush on hosts that offer free subdomains and complimentary hosting. Though they’ve been around for a while, there is now “an all-out gold rush” by spammers on these sites.
“Coincidentally most of these free-hosting websites have almost the exact same appearance,” the report notes. McAfee points out 0catch.com as one of these sites most heavily abused by spammers.
Sources:
http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/reports/8216rpt_spam_0110_v2.pdf
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/McAfee-Spammers-Turn-to-Free-Web-Hosting-Services-371651/
http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/011110_Spammers_Exploit_Free_Web_Hosting_Services_McAfee_Report
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