Opera Software has recently detected several spam attacks using faked e-mail signatures that appear to come from our company and our products. These e-mails attempt to use our name to gain the trust of recipients and then entice them to click links that install viruses on their computer.

Early findings by Carnegie Mellon University researchers suggest that people who are suckered by a spoof email into visiting a counterfeit Web site are also people who are ready to learn their lesson about “phishing” attacks.

A new study in PLoS Medicine has found that a third of all spam messages advertise health products such as drugs and natural health products and that it is easy to purchase prescription drugs and controlled substances advertised in these messages.

Data collected by SonicWALL, Inc. from its Smart Network database of over 1.3 million e-mail users shows ongoing growth in the volume of spam, virus and phishing attacks, increased use of PDF spam and the emergence of a new wave of Excel and ZIP spam. The results were based on aggregated results from the SonicWALL Smart Network from April to July, 2007.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed securities fraud charges against two Texas individuals in a high-tech scam that hijacked personal computers nationwide to disseminate millions of spam emails and cheat investors out of more than $4.6 million.