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Spam Three Times Higher than Last Year, but Lower than before McColo Takedown

Spam attacks are up in 2009. Though the New Year is less than two weeks old, the number of email and fraud scams is three times the amount of last year at this time, according to email security firm MessageLabs (part of Symantec).

From Jan. 1 through Jan. 7, spam made up about 10% of all email messages, compared to Jan. 1 through Jan. 15 last year, when just 3.1% of email messages were spam, writes DM News.

In December, spammers were busy trying to copy legitimate email newsletters, using templates that looked like newsletters from popular brands like the Food Network to sell items like pharmaceutical drugs.

In November, a U.S. based web hosting firm, McColo - likely responsible for facilitating more than 75% of spam emails - was knocked offline, resulting in an immediate and marked decrease in spam levels. However, the end of McColo led to the rise of a new breed of spam botnets which are causing a new and steady flow of spam into email inboxes, according to the Washington Post.

But though January numbers are up from last January, they are still below where they were just before McColo met its end. McAfee reports that spam levels are 40% lower than before McColo was knocked offline, while MessageLab’s report says spam levels are now at 80% of their pre-McColo shutdown levels.