Spam Email Sent from Hacked Gmail and Hotmail Accounts on the Rise

Spam emails sent by hackers from compromised Gmail and Hotmail accounts is on the rise.

According to a report released by Commtouch, the number of spam emails sent from hacked email accounts significantly increased between the second and third quarters.

The company released the statistics under The State of Hacked Accounts report, which provides details on the theft, abuse and recovery of Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and Facebook accounts.

The report reveals that people’s email accounts get hacked even if they don’t think that they are doing anything risky on the web. The company also claims that 62 percent of the people were not even aware how their account had been hacked.

Commtouch reports that less than one third of users noticed their account had been hacked and more than 50 percent relied on friends to make them aware their accounts had been hacked.

Meanwhile, 15 percent of people were under the impression that their accounts got hacked after they used a public computer or public Wi-Fi network.

“Commtouch’s poll reveals that more than two-thirds of all compromised accounts are used to send spam and scams,” said Commtouch’s chief technology officer, Amir Lev.

“This is not surprising, as cyber criminals can improve their email delivery rates by sending from trusted domains such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, and enhance their open and click-through rates by sending from familiar senders,” he added.

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