Kaspersky reveals key findings of October Spam 2013

As per the latest scam report from Kaspersky, October saw spammers exploiting the themes of upcoming holidays, the names of well-known telecommunication service providers and the conflict in Syria. There were also offers of magical services – love spells and incantations. Meanwhile, a rise of 6.6 percentage points in unsolicited and malicious emails took spam’s share of global email traffic to 72.5% for October.

Tatyana Shcherbakova, Senior Spam Analyst, Kaspersky Lab, commented, In most cases, spam mass mailings with malicious attachments target the confidential data of users. The fraudsters are looking for new ways to trick users and are actively expanding their list of high-profile company names for use in scams. Users should be very careful with any email containing executable .exe attachments or ZIP archives. The contents of the email should also be taken into consideration. Whenever you are asked to open an attachment, you should be very careful, and at the very least scan the attachment with the help of an antivirus program.

In October, Kaspersky Lab also registered spam mailings offering some rather unusual services  love spells and incantations.

Asia (56.4%) remained the leading regional spam source in October despite a slight drop (-2.4 percentage points) in spammer activity. North America came second after distributing 19% of the global spam. Meanwhile, Eastern Europe’s share went up 3.8 percentage points, averaging 16%, and placing the region third in the rating.