Economic crisis spells opportunity for spammers

Global economic downturn has lead to crashing stock markets, corporate bankruptcy, and rising unemployment.  The economy and the dreaded “R word” are at the forefront of most people’s minds at the moment, and as with most big events the spammers are using the recession to scam people and make money.

At any given time of year the spammer will use current or upcoming events to try and beat the last line of defense.  Christmas spam, Valentines day spam, Israel/Palestinian conflict spam, and now recession spam.

Spammers love the good times

Economic booms are great for spammers.  Unemployment is low, people have a lot of disposable income and banks are willing to give out lots of credit, so all they need is something to spend it on.  Spammers will offer fake goods and stock market scams to email users, some of whom will jump at the chance to buy what they think are luxury items or sound investments.  With so many cashed up people falling for the scams the spammer makes millions of dollars.

Spammers love the bad times too

Recessions and high unemployment are as big an opportunity for spammers as an economic boom is.  When people lose their jobs, their investment portfolios, or their retirement savings, desperation can kick in leaving them vulnerable to scams that promise opportunity and wealth.  Other scams involve preying on job seekers by masquerading as popular career websites.  While the economy crumbles and people struggle to make ends meet the spammer continues to make his millions of dollars by tricking people into parting with the few dollars they have left.

Protecting business employees from recession spam

There are immediate cost benefits achieved by investing in an effective antispam solution for your business.  By reducing the time spent by employees dealing with spam, and preventing the massive load that spam can place on email servers, your business saves far more money than it spends on a commercial antispam product.

During recessions your business users may be under more pressure than normal.  They may fear for their job and the financial stability it gives them.  Their workload and stress may have increased due to downsizing in their team.  Their retirement savings may have disappeared as the stock market crashed.  At these times your employees are more vulnerable than ever to spam that offers easy ways to make money.

Protecting yourself from recession spam

If the recession has made you vulnerable to this type of spam then chances are you have lost your job or your investment portfolio and are under considerable financial strain.  If you have lost your job then you are also no longer protected from spam by your employer’s antispam solution.  I use one of the most popular webmail systems for my personal email so I know that the spam protection they offer is not as good as that in most corporate environments.

The best way to protect yourself from scams is to engage your brain and apply a sceptical eye to any emails you receive.  The characteristics of spam are very consistent – vague descriptions that entice you to click on a link; amazing offers that claim to make you money fast; password phishing attempts that warn of a problem with your money and encourage you to go to a login page and enter your banking or Paypal credentials; job offers that require you to part with your own money first.

Remember you are the last line of defense against spam, and the spammer will try to exploit any current event or tragedy to make his money.