Spam 2.0 - The rise in "image spam"

As if we didn't get enough junk in our email boxes already, now another form of spam jumps into the frying pan. If you haven't seen it already, you will. It's image spam where images are used in place of text.
As anti-spam tools that use content filters to weed out unsolicited e-mails proliferate, those people responsible for creating the messages continue to increasingly adopt image spam. By sending e-mails that contain no text, only pictures, scammers have found that they can evade many security systems, according to San Carlos, Calif.-based messaging management vendor Postini Inc. The messages often include image files that have a screen shot offering the same types of information advertised in more traditional text-based spam.

Depending on what stats you read, image-based spam accounts for 15% to 25% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005.

Unsavory marketers are deploying image-based spam because it is harder to detect than text-based spam, and consumers are more likely to read an e-mail with a picture or graphic, says Craig Sprosts of anti-spam vendor IronPort Systems. Remember, most search engines or other software can't "read" or comprehend images the way the human brain can.

The newest spam uses technology that varies the content of individual messages — through colors, backgrounds, picture sizes or font types — so they appear to be distinct to spam filters. The spam is delivered to consumers and companies through millions of compromised PCs, called bots.

As software gets better at identifying and blocking spam, spammers get smarter at outfoxing software. "It is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game," says Dmitri Alperovitch of e-mail security company CipherTrust.

Why should you care?

Well, for one thing, image spam uses up more resources like bandwidth and storage space than traditional text-based spam. Your email box could fill up more quickly, bouncing messages you want to receive.

More importantly, this type of spam makes it more difficult for legitimate commercial emails using images to get through. It's already challenging to get quality emails through spam filters. As software is developed to filter out image spam, how well will it differentiate legitimate html emails with pictures from crap?

I mean really -- I put a lot of thought and time into my email blasts. They're not spam!