Security firm Softscan is predicting a 40 per cent surge in junk email during September as spammers target students returning after the summer break. The company has already seen a "dramatic rise" in the past few days as spammers perfect their techniques with e-card and document spam, both part of a range of new spam types which have started to circulate in recent months as spammers try to find ways to circumvent filters. Document spam involves spammers embedding their message within various document formats including PDFs, Word files and Excel files, which are sent as attachments. E-card spam involves users receiving an email containing a link to an e-card purporting to come from a friend or family member.
"It is a pattern we have seen in previous years, but this September looks as if it will be the largest increase yet," said Diego d"Ambra, chief technology officer at SoftScan. "Although we cannot predict with absolute certainty that this tendency for an increase in spam in September will continue, there are some strong indications. Spammers are constantly improving their methods to get past the filters. Last autumn it was image spam, but this year they have switched their attention to document and e-card spam."