An anti-spam company located in the UK, ClearMyMail, has recently issued a report that reveals how expensive fighting spam can actually be. Dealing with unwanted email messages received by sent by American spammers can cost small or medium-sized companies as much as £4.5 billion in terms of production costs.

The report continued to explain that many employees spent the equivalent of two full work days every year sorting, downloading, reviewing and discarding unwanted spam email messages. With approximately 6 seconds spent per each message received, small enterprises who include up to 10 different email accounts can count on approximately 160 hours of lost work time. Employees end up wasting valuable time trying to sort junk email messages from legitimate ones.

To minimize any work time lost managing spam email messages, the Managing Director of ClearMyMail, Dan Field, has several suggestions. Unwanted emails have increased with the growth and popularity of email programs and the Internet. Utilizing effective anti-spam software at your office, as well as in your home can reduce the problem. Well-protected computers make it harder for spammers to exploit them in order to send unsolicited emails. With less prospective victims to target, these spammers may be forced to adopt more conventional marketing techniques.

A recent analysis was performed by ClearMyMail to determine the countries generating the highest volume of unsolicited emails to Britain. The United States was at the head of the list with slightly less than half of all junk messages originating from that country with Britain, China, France and Germany close behind. At the other end of the spectrum, Japan generated one of the fewest numbers of targeted spam to the UK with less than 3%.

Many other reports from leading security providers such as Webroot have also confirmed the statistics contained in ClearMyMail’s recent analysis. The document entitled “State of Internet Security: Protecting Business Email” revealed that the growing number of malware and junk spam messages received can devastate computer networks in small or medium-sized companies as well as small nations.

Hackers have been taking advantage of the impending tax deadline in the
United States. A much greater number of spam messages are being used to lure individuals with tax-related themes. Once people click on these fake tax emails, malware is often loaded on to their computer systems.

The security researcher at Symantec, Kelly Conley has reported an increase in new forms of spam related to the impending tax season. Much of the malicious spam convinces unwitting users to download virus-laden files.

One recent attack mimics the American Internal Revenue Service and sends emails that appear to be sent directly from an IRS address. The email advises the receiver that every
US citizen is required to update their computers with new tax-related software to meet new requirements implemented by the IRS. Unsuspecting users are requested to visit irs.gov/softwareupdate and then click open.

When users follow the instructions, they are directed to what they believe is an official IRS page. Unfortunately, the page actually installs a Trojan program on to their system.

The researchers at Symantec have also discovered another recent attack that is meant to convince users that messages are being sent about the TurboTax software to prepare taxes. These spam messages also advise users that they must update their software in order to comply with a newly introduced law. Once again, users end up being directed to a fake Turbo Tax update site where a Trojan is downloaded to their computer.

Symantec researchers advise everyone to be extra cautious when they receive any tax-related email messages during the tax period. The good news is that there is a way you can protect yourself from these tax attacks. You can detect a malicious email by verifying if the message was sent from “turbotax.cn” instead of the legitimate “turbotax.com” domain. You should also check for a suspicious looking URL that leads to the malware download page.

Don’t download anything unless you are completely sure it is legitimate. You should visit the company’s website to update your software, rather than updating it via a link contained in an email message. Also be sure you keep your security software updated.

Taking these simple steps will help you protect your computer and your personal information this tax season.