Spam soars but viruses fall

British surfers were inundated with spam peddling miracle medical cures during October, according to email monitoring firm Email Systems. Emails selling medical products that claim to help problems such as weight loss, depression, anxiety problems and sexual health accounted for almost half of spam to UK Inboxes. Other spam messages related to pornography, gambling, cheap software and mortgages with Saturdays the worst day of the week for spam, reports Email Systems. Neil Hammerton, managing director of Email Systems, said: “The fact that we’re now into cold and flu season is potentially the reason behind the massive rise in medical related email, the majority of which were written in broken English, including phrases such as ‘meds affordable cause it is internet’ and ‘no extra money asked’.” According to Email Systems, while spam soared during October, the number of email viruses bombarding our Inboxes dropped by a third. Anti-virus company Sophos also reported a “noticeable reduction in viral email traffic” last month. In its latest chart of the top ten viruses causing problems around the world, the most prevalent viruses in October were Netsky.P and Zafi.B - viruses which have topped the chart since June. Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos, said: "These viruses are so prevalent and well established that it is very difficult for newer viruses to compete. Thousands of copies are circulating all over the world - it may be that unprotected PCs in areas where computer security is not a top priority are responsible for keeping the menace alive."