SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 12 -- Brightmail, the leader in anti-spam technology, announced today the Top 10 Spam messages from 2002, as measured by Brightmail's patented Probe Network(TM), which has a statistical reach of over 200 million mailboxes. Based on volume of messages as a percentage of all spam, the following Subject lines top the list in 2002:
1. "Protect Your Computer Against Viruses for $9.95"
Anti-virus software spam was the most common this year
2. "Verification Department"
Credit card scam spam has been especially in recent months
3. "Refinancing? Get a FREE quote on any mortgage loan program"
Mortgage spam holds its ground this year as a classic
4. "Printer Cartridges - Save up to 80% - Free Shipping Offer"
Printer cartridge spam, also a classic, is still one of the top spams
5. "Miniature Remote Control Car. Great Gift!"
A newer spam, an email about toy cars for the holidays has hit email accounts at full throttle in recent months
6. "$100 F R E E, Please Play Now!"
Casino spam continued to stake out email inboxes worldwide
7. "Online Auction Marketing Secrets!"
Online auction marketing scams bid heavily on email users this year
8. "Important news Kuira"
Septic system spam seeped rapidly through the Internet for quite some time in early 2002
9. "URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL."
Nigerian scam spam asked millions of email users to help free-up usurped royal coffers this year
10. "GET A FREE PASS TO THOUSANDS OF XXX SITES!"
Pornographic email slithered into inboxes, including those of children
"In 2002, we saw classics like the 'Printer Cartridges' and the 'Nigerian Scam' spam messages reach exceptionally high volumes while newcomers 'Septic System' and 'Remote Control Cars' made big debuts," explained Ken Schneider, CTO at Brightmail. "Filtering millions of messages away from our customers everyday, we see more spam than anyone so you don't have to."
It's important to remember that often spammers are not who they seem to be. Many times the companies named in the 'From' line, 'Subject' line or in the header are in no way associated with the senders of spam. Spammers use well-known brands to draw attention and attach credibility to their scams or unauthorized marketing. Furthermore, spammers have had to become increasingly sophisticated in 2002, partly in response to a worldwide backlash against the dramatic rise in spam. With legislators, regulators, technologists and individual email users pitted against them, spammers have had to hide behind digital identity theft.
Despite spammers' increasingly sophisticated techniques, Brightmail ensures that the emails it filters for its ISP and enterprise customers are actually spam because it does not block based solely on domain names or headers. By seeding decoy email addresses throughout the Internet, Brightmail attracts and groups millions of unsolicited bulk messages and automatically generates rules using sophisticated grouping algorithms and its latest technology, BrightSig(TM) which eliminates the random characters intended to confuse spam filters. Brightmail prevents these groups of bulk email messages -- identified as 'spam attacks' -- from reaching its customers by constantly pushing out new rule sets to its customers. In 2002, Brightmail defended its customers against more than 50 million spam attacks.
"It is our mission to help free the world of spam, so that email can remain a viable mode of communication," said Enrique Salem, president and CEO of Brightmail. "Most email users have seen the spam messages on our Top 10 list and deleted them countless times this year. With our effective anti-spam technology you don't have to waste your time, your resources or your sanity dealing with e-trash. While 2002 has been the year of spam, we predict that 2003 is the year of anti-spam technology."
About Brightmail
Brightmail, the worldwide leader in anti-spam technology provides an integrated suite of software and services that makes messaging secure and manageable. Brightmail protects the networks of service providers, enterprises and mobile network operators by filtering spam, viruses and undesired messages at the Internet gateway. Brightmail currently serves many of the largest service providers, including AT&T WorldNet, EarthLink, MSN, and Verizon Online, as well as a number of Global 2000 corporations. Brightmail is backed by world-class investors and partners and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.brightmail.com.
NOTE: Brightmail is a U.S. registered trademark of Brightmail Inc. BLOC, Probe Network and BrightSig are trademarks of Brightmail Inc. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
