Spam is doing well! According to the experts of security technologies at Symantec, between 150 and 200 billion spam mails were sent each day worldwide, in 2008. This represents between 80 percent and 90 percent of mails sent to individuals, and even 97 percent to professionals. The amount of spam is also said to be steadily increasing, following the curve of increasing mass of emails. Spam is mighty difficult to trace, they said. Only the last sender is easily identifiable, but it is only in 95 percent of the final relay, not the origin of the spam. So, really, billions of people have long been getting their hands on that fabled Nigerian gold.

According to the annual report of the company Sophos, the U.S. remains the largest spam issuer in 2008, despite a significant decline compared to 2007 (17.5 percent, against 22.5 percent the previous year). The top three is completed by Russia (7.8 percent total global spam) and Turkey (6.9 percent). Spam thrives where there are volumes of computers even if they are well protected, and also when the computer is vulnerable because of poor protection. There is no place to hide, even if you’re in the crevice between two broadbands that suck.

A computer can be infected when a user opens an attachment or clicks a link, as you would sometimes do with beautifully packaged chain email that tells you how much Jesus is patiently at your side 25 hours of the day. Sometimes, spam is in a real newsletter, like some of those that supposedly come from Oprah’s personal trainer who promises to help you keep your weight down for good even if he can’t do just that to his protégé. Hackers can easily turn people into issuers of spam, rendering the old dictum of ‘go forth and multiply’ into some hugely absurd dimension.

In 2008, the trend was the kind of spam circulated among and from social network sites. Cybercriminals create profiles or hijack the accounts of actual members of Facebook or Twitter, for instance. Usurping their identity, they send messages to all their contacts that are right there in “Facebook friends.” No wonder Barack Obama is said to have millions of friends on Facebook.

There’s money in spam, too! It has become a profitable business, sort of a huge cottage industry of the web business. Viagra, pharmaceuticals, even vacations, do sell via spam, according to a study from the Universities of San Diego and Berkeley, published in November 2008. About one in 12.5 million buys a product as a result of receiving spam. Well, if there’s a sucker born every minute, so is there another every 12.5 millionth.

So, the next time people offer you online some wonder drug that will enlarge your p***s, think about the assurance you can have that they will be back again, and again, and again.

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Via All Spammed Up