Spammers take advantage of World Cup

Technology / Internet

The World Cup is a field day for beer advertisers, travel agents, and now, it seems, junk e-mailers: soccer spam has popped up in almost every language.

"While some of (the World Cup junk e-mail) is actually related to the month-long (soccer tournament) taking place in Germany, most of it mentions the World Cup in order to sell typical spam offerings such as mortgages, online gambling and travel," anti-spam company Commtouch said in a company statement.

"These spammers send their unsolicited messages to millions of people in the hopes that even a tiny percentage will purchase their services, legitimate or not," Commtouch President and Chief Technology Officer Amir Lev said via the statement.

"The convergence of spam and 'malware' -- such as viruses and spyware -- can make such attacks even more dangerous," Lev continued.

The company, which has "detection centers" all over the world to track spam and identify new spamming trends, said mortgage refinance, gambling, travel packages, innovative ways to view the World Cup and ticket offers were the main categories of the special-occasion spam.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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