Spammers are now using out-of-office auto-responders to get their emails to beat spam filters, according to security experts.

By sending emails that seem to have originated from popular web-based email applications, spammers can trick spam-filtering tools, McAfee has warned.

Unlike spam sent by botnets – a network of PCs that have been hacked into and are being controlled by spam gangs – the emails are being sent from legitimate – rather than spoofed – email accounts, meaning that filters will let them through.

However, the text of the message looks nothing like a typical auto-responder message, with the content containing advertising, often for adult websites.

"In recent weeks we have seen an increasing number of spam apparently sent by legitimate web-based email systems," said Jeremy Gilliat, an anti-spam engineer at McAfee based in Aylesbury, Bucks.

"Interestingly, we see spam from a number of accounts being abused in this way. I suspect the spammer has a program that automatically creates accounts and sets the responder text, all with no manual work required. This gives the spammer the capability to have lots of webmail accounts, all used to spam lots of people," Gilliat continued.

www.mcafee.com

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