Spam – The Perfect Valentine Gift

Sydney, Australia – February 13, 2008 – BitDefender®, an award-winning provider of antivirus software and data security solutions, today announced that BitDefender antispam analysts have detected Valentine-themed spam contaminating the net this week. The two most notable volumes were achieved by a pharma wave which included a wide range of pitches and a replica watch wave advertising “Perfect gifts for Valentine's Day?”

 

Various other advertising waves made up the bulk of Valentine spam. The pages opened by the included URLs brought user to different online-shops (free spending gift cards, flower shops, music purchases).

 

The most annoying and dangerously themed spam is an adware-carrying wave. The emails pretended to open a page specialized in sending e-cards ("Wish them love and a happy Valentines Day with one of our animated, personal greeting cards"), but instead the user was sent to a "smiley center". If the user downloaded the "free smiles", an adware "gift" was also received. 

 

According to BitDefender antispam analysts, the total amount of spam sent has been increasing by 20-25% since December 2007. The emails related to Valentine's Day represent a significant part of this growth.

 

"Believe it or not, spammers are actually starting to target their messages in hopes of getting greater returns" commented Bogdan Dumitru, BitDefender CTO. "Users need to be wary of the different URLs they click on during holiday seasons, as they will start to notice their inboxes increasingly being flooded with targeted spam during these periods."

 

BitDefender recommends (aside from not clicking spam links) the use of an integrated security solution, one that offers antivirus, antispam and a firewall, but also has advanced features like web filtering and identity protection.