11 Feb 2005
Love is in the air for spammers in run-up to Valentine's Day, Sophos calls for consumer boycott
Anti-spam experts at Sophos are calling on consumers to boycott
companies who try to sell them goods via spam in the run-up to St
Valentine's Day on Monday 14 February.
In the run-up to the most romantic day of the year, Sophos's
global network of spamtraps are seeing thousands of unsolicited
bulk emails being sent with the intention of selling
Valentine-related products.
Subject lines seen have included:
A uniquely engaging Valentines gift idea
FREE Valentines Day Chocolates
Don't Wait- 15% Off All Valentine Fresh Flowers
Valentines Day Gifts for FREE*
Goods promoted via Valentine-related spam have ranged from
skimpy lingerie to chocolates, flowers to pashmina shawls, and even
adult board games.
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| Spammers are using Valentine's Day to promote a
variety of goods. |
"Everyone says they are fed up with spam on the internet, but
it's surprising just how many people do admit they have
occasionally bought products sold via spam, or visited websites
promoted via bulk email," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "If you buy goods marketed via
spam then you are simply encouraging the spammers to send more junk
email. If no-one purchased the products then the spammers would
disappear. Our advice this Valentine's Day is to visit the local
flowershop or cook a romantic meal for two, rather than give money
to the companies who think spamming is acceptable."
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend businesses
from the threats of both spam and viruses.
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.