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World Cup Spam: The Inbox is the Goal; Spammers Attack With Fraudulent (and Just Plain Irritating) World Cup Messages


    While the football forwards are playing offense on the
    field, spammers are making offensive maneuvers of their own, trying to
    leverage the World Cup for their own gain. Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCH), a
    leading provider of anti-spam software, has identified tens of
    thousands of World Cup-related spam messages, with some containing
    what appear to be fraudulent offers.
    World Cup spam has emerged in almost every language, and while
    some of it is actually related to the month-long football games 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.
    Here are some examples of categories of spam and their related "World
    Cup" subjects:

    Mortgage refinance

    -- World Cup extra cashback offer plus new quicker payments

    Gambling/casinos:

    -- join the world cup tipping to win $10,000 in cash!

    -- kick off the world cup with a fantastic free bet basket!

    -- free world cup prediction game: your last chance to join!

    Travel packages & other products:

    -- fantastic family holidays in the sun plus live world cup
    coverage

    -- win a vip trip to the 2006 world cup final

    -- World Cup Special: Try our 32 different flavors (Spanish)

    Innovative ways to view the World Cup/Ticket Offers:

    -- See the World Cup on your PC (Spanish)

    -- 2006 FIFA World Cup now on mobile plus semi-final tickets to
    be won!

    -- Germany 2006 World Cup. Tickets in hand!

    "Spammers are trying to ride the World Cup's wave of popularity.
    They are promoting travel, mortgages, betting schemes, and even a few
    things that are actually related to the football games," said Amir
    Lev, President and CTO of Commtouch. "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. The
    convergence of spam and malware -- such as viruses and spyware -- can
    make such attacks even more dangerous."
    Commtouch's Global Detection Centers handles and inspects billions
    of email messages on a monthly basis, in order to detect and block
    spam and malware outbreaks in real time.

    About Commtouch

    Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq:CTCH) is dedicated to protecting
    and preserving the integrity of the world's most important
    communications tool -- email. Commtouch has over 15 years of
    experience developing messaging software and is a global developer and
    provider of proprietary anti-spam and Zero-Hour virus protection
    solutions. Using core technologies including RPD (Recurrent Pattern
    Detection(TM)), the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes billions of
    email messages per month to identify new spam and malware outbreaks
    within minutes of their introduction into the Internet. Integrated by
    more than 30 OEM partners, Commtouch technology protects thousands of
    organizations, with over 35 million users in 100 countries. Commtouch
    is headquartered in Netanya, Israel, and has a subsidiary in Mountain
    View, CA. For more information, see: www.commtouch.com, including the
    Commtouch online lab detailing spam statistics and charts.