Spam Psychology
Posted by Tim Stevens on 19 July 2008
Confirming what the world suspected, McAfee recently released the findings of their SPAM (Spammed Persistently All Month) Experiment: spam and cybercrime are linked.
50 people from around the world surfed the Web unprotected for 30 days. By taking part in the experiment, participants were given permission to go where most Internet users would not dare, in order to discover how much spam they would attract and what the effects would be. Having studied the daily blogs and analyzed the spam itself, McAfee® researchers confirm that spammers are as active as ever; they are increasingly using psychological tricks to lure Internet users to part with their contact details, identity information and cash. The experiment clearly shows that spam continues to evolve, utilizing more local languages and cultural nuances, as well as becoming much more targeted in a bid to avoid detection.
In the first experiment of its kind, the participants from 10 countries received more than 104,000 spam e-mails throughout the course of the experiment. That’s 2,096 messages each - the equivalent of approximately 70 messages a day.
One of McAfee’s goals was to highlight that, contrary to what people might think, spam is not only a nuisance but it also poses a very real threat and is showing no sign of slowing down. For anyone that has ever wanted to ‘click’ and find out if an offer really is “too good to be true,” the McAfee S.P.A.M. Experiment satisfies that curiosity, without any of the risks.
The full report is available as a PDF, and the participants’ blogs are well worth scrolling through. Those poor bastards took it all in their stride.
