Spam emails exploit global interest in the US elections

Last night’s US presidential election was a historic occasion, with Americans voting in the first African American president, Barack Obama.

Because of the importance of this contest people from all over the world watched the contest between Barack Obama and John McCain, which was the longest and most expensive campaign in US history.

Sadly the unprecedented global interest in the election has been exploited by spammers who have sent out spam emails pertaining to be about the contest to thousands of recipients. According to the latest spam report by Symantec, fraudulent emails sent to victims included methods to get personal details such as asking readers to complete a survey on the US election in return for a free gift card, whilst another promised a free documentary about Barack Obama on DVD if they provided their credit card details.

The report also found that the economic crisis and Christmas were also used to entice recipients to open and respond to spam emails.

To view the complete report click here.