A Picture of Mobile Spam, from Cloudmark

An actual picture of Spam

Cloudmark has assembled a picture of mobile spam, in its inaugural Global eMessaging Threat Report, covering the first half of 2012. Overall, spam increased by 11 per cent over the period, and the top scam was 'a free gift card', almost doubling from 28 per cent in Q1 to 53 per cent in the second quarter. 

During Q1, 2012, the number of unique SMS spam pitches increased by 110 per cent, but the number of unique domains associated with SMS spam did not increase substantially - possibly indicating that scammers are not finding significant obstacles to webhosting for their malevolent campaigns.

Spam Facts:

• 11 of the top sending spam countries in Q2 were located in Europe
• In the first half of 2012, PPI compensation scams were the most common in the UK
• Overall spam increased by 11 per cent in Q2, compared to Q1
• From Q1 to Q2, Europe rose two places on the list of originating spam regions and is currently sitting in fourth place, behind Africa, Middle East and Central America
• While the number of unique domains used in SMS scams increased substantially in Q2, the number of unique phone numbers used in the text of the SMS scams fell
• Multi-affiliate scams also increased; though the numbers remain small, multi-affiliate scams doubled in Q2, from 2 per cent in Q1 to 4 per cent in Q2