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UK spam index reveals top targets
22/05/08
Anti-spam
company ClearMyMail has revealed results of their first ever
quarterly spamming index and, Abbey has by far been subjected to the
greatest proportion of Phishing attacks. All results from the
spamming index are evaluated below.
When assessing the quantities of spam that ClearMyMail had prevented
from reaching intended participants between January 2008 and March
2008, some worrying results were collated. Figures show that 8,156
emails were blocked, per customer, during those three months.
A breakdown of these emails revealed Abbey to be the main company
targeted by Phishing attacks, customers’ who choose Orange as an
Internet Service Provider to receive the highest percentage of spam
and the USA continuing to be the main source of the UK’s Phishing
attacks.
Results show the Top 10 most popular company names used by email
fraudsters when targeting the personal finance industry; Abbey had
previously only received 6% of the total proportion of Phishing
emails blocked; this has quite dramatically changed, taking them
well into the lead..
Top 10 UK Companies Targeted by Phishing Attacks
1. Abbey = 32.99% of all Phishing emails blocked were targeting
Abbey Bank
2. Citi Bank = 19.15%
3. Natwest = 11.60%
4. Halifax = 8.49%
5. PayPal = 7.19%
6. HSBC = 6.69%
7. Lloyds TSB = 6.01%
8. RBS = 4.17%
9. Nationwide = 2.42%
10. MBNA = 0.57%
Comparatively to Abbey, Halifax has led the way up the fraudsters’
rankings. The final quarter of 2007 resulted in Halifax only
receiving 0.8% of the total proportion of Phishing emails blocked.
This has since risen to 8.49%.
On the contrary, HSBC has dropped 3 places in ClearMyMail’s Top 10;
previously amounting to 11% of all emails blocked and now plummeting
to 6.69%. MBNA has consistently received the least amount of spam
emails, rising from 0.5% from the last quarter, to just 0.57% this
quarter.
The below figures indicate the Top 10 spam targeted UK Internet
Service Provider’s (ISP’s) and thus reflects which ISP is
potentially the most harmful, to date. The percentage reflects how
many of the individual ISP’s customers’ emails are indeed spam.
Top 10 UK ISP's Who's Customers Receive the Most Spam
1. Orange = 96% average spam rate
2. Toucan = 92.5%
3. Force 9 = 90.3%
4. UK Servers = 89.9%
5. Pipex = 88.5%
6. MacUnlimited.net = 85.9%
7. Sky = 84.9%
8. BT Internet = 84.7%
9. Talk Talk = 82.8%
10. Tiscali = 81.3%
Research showed that a massive 96% of all emails that have gone
through the ClearMyMail anti-spam system via Orange ISP’s, were
either spam or virus related. This is bad news for Orange, whose
last quarterly results saw them at only 6th place, with an 89%
average spam rate.
In contrast, Talk Talk and Force 9 have demonstrated some positive
results; Force 9 was previously the leader with a 95% average spam
rate, dropping 4.2% this quarter. Talk Talk has, by far, revealed
the greatest improvement, dropping from 2nd place in Q4 2007 with a
95% average spam rate, to a significantly lower 82.8%, tumbling to
9th place.
www.ClearMyMail.com also looked at which countries produce the
highest number of UK targeted spam and, much like Q4 2007, America
is leading the way with just under 20% of all rogue emails coming
from the USA.
Top 10 Countries Sending Spam to UK Email Accounts
1. USA = 19.53% of UK spam comes from USA
2. UK = 15.68%
3. Uruguay = 6.45%
4. Turkey = 4.96%
5. Russia = 3.68%
6. Spain = 3.46%
7. Poland = 3.29%
8. Germany = 3.25%
9. China = 3.19%
10. France = 3.12%
However, it is important to note that despite leading this poll for
the second consecutive quarter, the percentage of spam emails coming
to the UK from the USA has dropped by almost 30% since the last
quarter. The 19.53% of emails coming from the USA is being closely
followed by the UK, who is now responsible for 15.68% of all rogue
emails entering UK email accounts; an increase of 2.59% from the
last quarter.
The most dramatic changes have been from China, Germany and France;
each dropping significantly on ClearMyMail’s Top 10 results. These
countries had previously ranked high in the Top 10 countries sending
spam to UK email accounts, coming in at 3rd, 4th and 5th place. They
have now plunged to 8th, 9th and 10th place, therefore becoming less
threatening to UK email users.
The results this quarter reflect more European countries becoming a
threat to UK email accounts and it is suggested that spammers and
Phishers are getting more targeted and even local. This allows
spammers to know the markets they are targeting and therefore
maximise the outcomes of rogue emails.
Dan Field, Managing Director of ClearMyMail, discusses these recent
findings:
“Clearly these statistics are very concerning, and to discover that
only 4% of emails to some ISP’s are genuine, suggests that more
action desperately needs to be taken. Again, I reiterate the
importance of ISP’s, anti-spam and anti-virus providers all working
together to fully utilize their fraud protection capabilities, and
eliminate the time consuming and frustrating process of sieving
through spam emails.”
UK based ClearMyMail is the only company in the world to offer a
complete no spam guarantee. The software prevents all forms of spam
and phishing emails, cutting out the risk of fraud.
The system has the ability to also stop the new wave of "image-spam"
that has been increasingly hitting in-boxes.
Nick Gibson, editor
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