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'Donald Trump Wants You' Takes First Place in Top Ten Spam Emails of 2005 |
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Written by Wire Services
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Wednesday, 28 December 2005 |
Does Donald Trump really want you? Will the Penis Patch improve your sex life? Is your mortgage application ready? Can you lose 6-20 inches in one hour with a body wrap? Did Lisa send you to the wrong site?
The answer to each of these questions is almost certainly no. But they are examples of increasingly sophisticated methods spammers are using to prey on email users this year, according to AOL's third annual Top 10 Spam List.
This year's analysis of hundreds of billions of attempted spam messages targeting AOL's global email customers finds that spammers are using more "special order" style subject lines. In fact, six in 10 of the top subject lines this year fall into this category, compared with just two in 2005, and none in 2003.
Instead of generic pitches for products, "SOS" - or "special order spam" - attempts to trick the consumer by pretending to be from a friend, or part of a legitimate, customer-driven transaction. For example, this year's Top 10 spam list features "Your Mortgage Application is Ready"; another claims to have sent "you to the wrong site," and others simply say "Thank you" or "Re:" as if they are responding to the recipient.
Returning favourites on the AOL Top 10 list include pitches for products that claim to improve physical appearance, sexual material, and offers for prescription drugs.
AOL's 2005 Top 10 global spam subject lines (spam categories in parenthesis):
- Donald Trump Wants You - Please Respond (popular recognition)
- Double Standards New Product - Penis Patch (sexually oriented spam)
- Body Wrap: Lose 6-20 inches in one hour (body improvement products)
- Get an Apple iPod Nano, PS3 or Xbox 360 for Free (technology offers)
- It's Lisa, I must have sent you to the wrong site ("personalized" correspondence)
- (xx)Breaking Stock News(xx) Small Cap Issue Poised to Triple (stock scams)
- Thank you for your business. Shipment notification (77FD87) (bogus transactional spam)
- (IMPORTANT) Your Mortgage Application is Ready (mortgage-related scams)
- Thank you: Your $199 Rolex Special Included (high-end "deals")
- Online Prescriptions Made Easy (pharmaceutical)
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