Trends in Social Web Spam and Abuse-Summer 2011

O IMPERMIUM Index Trends in Social Web Spam and Abuse - Summer 2011 Based on 104 million social media transactions, 90 million users, 72 countries 5-40% of Web Site User Accounts are Fraudulent Bots and mechanical turks are registering fake accounts in the millions. The more valuable the account - and the easier it is to register - usually determines how many a company has. 100 * f 5x Fraudulent Facebook accounts Registrations (Black Market cost) - Summer 2010 Summer 2011 40x $15 $135 Genuine Registrations Breaking in with Breaking News - Time gap between real news and malicious attacks hrs 9. Osama Bin Laden Amy Winehouse 30m mins Malicious social network exploits featuring fake "exclusive Bin Laden documents" appeared within 6 hours of the real news story. 3 months later, fake death scene photos of Amy Winehouse employed the same scam. As Social Scammers increase their sophistication, Impermium predicts the next major exploit could occur within just 30 minutes. Sources of Social Web Spam and Abuse - Notable Countries 30% RUSSIA 28% USA 5% IRAN 14% PHILIPPINES UGGS 3:1 ...the most spammed consumer product in August...2x more than Social web spammers exploited fashion and consumer electronics categories over porn by a factor of 3:1 Gucci and 5x more than Prada DINER Mom & Pop businesses are spamming too Restaurants Airport Transportation Social spam 'sleeper cell'erupts on a prominent site! ..leading to 475,000 social spam wall posts 30,000 dormant accounts activated within one hour About Impermium Impermium helps companies efficiently fight the onslaught of social web spam and abuse. The Impermium Index draws from the company's proprietary database - the world's most comprehensive resource. Follow the latest trends on social web spam and abuse by visiting http://blog.impermium.com. Copyright Impermium. Available for use under Creative Commons attribution license.