One of the more common gimmicks of spammers is to use popular celebrities as bait to get people to read the e-mail. It must be successful because they keep using the gimmick. The years change and so do the names. For 2009, who were the most popular men and women used to get you to click on those illicit links? eSecurity Planet has the list.
McAfee Labs on Monday unveiled its rankings of the Top 25 men and women listed in the subject lines of spam e-mails in 2009 with President Obama coming in atop the less-than-desirable list.
Spammers and phishers have and always will use celebrities and breaking news events to promulgate their annoying and increasingly destructive malware.
President Obama checked in as the most common spam subject last year, beating out the likes of Michael Jackson (No. 2 among men), former President George W. Bush (No. 3), actor Brad Pitt (No. 4) and musician Eminem (No. 5).
Rounding out McAfee’s (NYSE: MFE) Top 10 among men in spam subject lines were Warren Buffett (No. 6), Chuck Norris (No. 7), Don Juan (No. 8), Elton John (No. 9) and Sacha Baron Cohen (No. 10).