War Profiteers Go Digital

Wartime opportunists have taken to the Internet, firing off rounds of spam selling items such as American flags, T-shirts, and gas masks, in an offensive that is filling users' in-boxes, a new study says.

War-related spam accounted for nearly 10 percent of all spam reviewed by e-mail filter company SurfControl by the end of March, compared to the handful of war spam it collected at the beginning of the month.

Fast Response

SurfControl reviews 40,000 to 50,000 spam messages each month, said Susan Getgood, the company's senior vice president of marketing. Previously, spam touting dubious Nigerian business offers and mortgage rates were en vogue, according to Getgood. Recently, the alleged Nigerian letter has resurfaced as a similar purported Iraqi plea.

The new wartime messages underscore spammers' ability to quickly shift gears and grab onto the latest news hook to sell their wares.

"The use of e-mail and spam just makes the turnaround faster...and spammers reach a broader audience," Getgood said.

Of the war-related spam, the most frequent in March were messages peddling "American Car Flags to Support Our Troops," "Take 4 History Books for $1 Each," and "Defenders of Freedom U.S. Coins," according to SurfControl. Other spam advertised T-shirts, lapel pins, water filtration systems, and Israeli gas masks.

The different types of war-related spam are not coming from just one source, the e-mail filtering company finds. The company counted 216 variations on the gas mask spam in March.

Moving Target

The company continued to see the same level of war-related spam in the beginning of April, but the focus has changed from items like gas masks to T-shirts, Getgood said.

In recent months, spam has become Internet users' enemy number one, according to experts, as they have increasingly found their in-boxes inundated with unsolicited commercial e-mail.

"What you have to remember as a consumer or business is that spam content may change a little but it will continue to provide commercial offers to people who didn't ask for them," Getgood said.