Norton Symantec Blog

The number of people having their personal email accounts hacked is on the rise, according to Symantec’s monthly ‘State of Spam’ report. They document how there are many different ways of harvesting different people’s personal email addresses. Some of the different tactics include:

• Using different spambots, which crawl through the Internet looking for different email addresses
• By bombarding a specific email server with email addresses and search for the specific addresses which do not bounce
• Purchasing different lists of email addresses for professional spammers.

The report suggests that during the past few months, a certain number of spammer attempted to simplify their email harvesting techniques. By beginning with a long list of email addresses, obtained surreptitiously, the spammers attempted to send messages to people who were interested in receiving information regarding a number of different products. The messages read: ‘Do you want to buy any stuff: any kind of pills, oem software, cool porn? Just mail me back, i’ll find the best offer for you.’

It was found that a number of people replied to the email, giving spammers access to a ready-made list of people who are willing to invest time and money in their products. Most significantly, the spammers have created a ‘bone-fide’ email list, people have responded willingly and therefore it is difficult for it to be classed by mail providers as spam in the future.