In the second quarter of 2016, the average spam level reached 57,3% of all emails, according to Kaspersky Lab's three-month report on Spam and Phishing. This is an increase of four percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2015 and one percentage point compared to the previous quarter.
During the previous quarter, political issues were among the most interesting issues for spammers. The upcoming US elections and presidential candidates have given crooks a good opportunity to target users. Among the "hot" themes of the quarter were the Olympic Games in Brazil, with spammers and phishers making money from the fans.
Ο Donald Trump υπήρξε ένα από τα κύρια θέματα για την πλειοψηφία των μηνυμάτων spam που αφορούσαν την πολιτική. Σε αυτά τα email, οι sρammers περιέγραφαν στους παραλήπτες-στόχους τις μοναδικές μεθόδους που ακολούθησε ο Donald Trump για να πλουτίσει, προσκαλώντας τους να τις αντιγράψουν στις δικές τους επιχειρήσεις. Για να μάθουν περισσότερα, οι χρήστες έπρεπε να ανοίξουν το link που βρισκόταν σε αυτά τα email. Το link οδηγούσε σε ένα ψεύτικο ειδησεογραφικό site, που περιείχε ένα άρθρο σχετικά με το πώς ο Trump απέκτησε χρήματα. Για να μάθουν περισσότερα, οι χρήστες καλούνταν να συμπληρώσουν τα προσωπικά τους στοιχεία στην ηλεκτρονική φόρμα της ιστοσελίδας. Προφανώς, ο user it wasn't making money, but digital criminals were getting sensitive data.
“Quite often spammers try to exploit important news and speculation about famous people. Donald Trump was no exception. Users should be aware of this and remain vigilant in order to mitigate the risk. We can also see that social networks are particularly attractive to spammers and phishers. If one of your friends starts behaving differently when he is around online and sends provocatively link or still does tagyou or one of your friends under suspicious publications, it is likely that his account has been violated. Do not open theselink and don't install any software that might point you to it system. Η κοινή λογική μπορεί να αποτρέψει σχεδόν όλες τις «μολύνσεις» αυτού του τύπου. Επιπλέον, ξανασκεφτείτε το πριν ανοίξετε συνημμένα αρχεία σε μηνύματα ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου, αφού ο κίνδυνος «μόλυνσης» του υπολογιστή σας είναι πολύ υψηλός», warns Daria Gudkova, Spam Expert of Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky Lab's Anti-Phishing System was activated 32.363.492 times on user computers. In the second quarter of 2015, the system was activated 30.807.071 times, indicating an increase of almost 5% on an annual basis. 
The largest proportion of users affected by phishing attacks was in China (20,22%), while Brazil (18,63%) and Brazil (14,3%) ranked second in the list. It is worth noting that the percentage of users affected in the second quarter of 2015 was lower and the first three countries in the relative ranking were then Brazil (9,74%), India (8,3%) and China (7,23%). As is evident, the figures above doubled on an annual basis.
An unusual anomaly in the circulation volume of the malignant serum was discovered during the second trimester. From 1 June to 21 June, the company's experts noticed a huge reduction in malware sram email campaigns. During this period, there was an 20 decrease in the average number of sms email messages with zip files, compared to the overall average for the quarter. At the same time, the botnet Necurs mysteriously reduced its fraudulent activities.
Kaspersky Lab specialists do not have any unmistakable proof that these two events are linked, but that is likely. Several sources on the Internet reported that the players behind the Necurs botnet encountered some technical issues, resulting in shutdown. These problems seem to be resolved quickly, as from June 21 onwards, the malicious spam email flow was restored along with the botnet functions.
To stay safe and not fall into the trap of fraudsters, Kaspersky Lab recommends that users use common sense and be careful when online. In general, users should not click on untrusted links, not allow installation Plugin from suspicious online sources and do not disable them Anti-Phishing and Anti-Spam functions of their security solutions.
The complete report on the landscape of spam and phishing in the second quarter of 2016 is available on the website Securelist.com.
Download the full report (PDF)
