BANGALORE, INDIA: Secure Computing Corp. has come out with its monthly report that outlines the spam trends we're seeing in the field.

Secure Computing's Research team found six major spam waves in the month of June. Following is an overview of each.

1) Phishing Attacks: There was a new round of phishing attacks in June. The objective of a phishing attack is to convince an end user to log into a service immediately and "confirm" personal details in order to prevent an impending financial catastrophe. The email usually directs the user to the URL of an insecure hijacked Web site.

2) Fashion Spam: A common form of spam, fashion spam sites generally sell replica or overstocked goods by promising huge discounts and top quality. Fashion spam has been around for awhile, but Secure Computing recently found a number of additional brands added to the mix, including Adidas, Bally, Bikkembergs, Boss, Burberry, Chloe, Coach and Paul Smith.

3) Loan Spam: With all the financial dread currently facing people on a daily basis, it's little wonder that spammers try to capitalize on it. The lure of loan officers telling people that they are just a few clicks away from financial freedom draws people into clicking on links that can lead them to a Trojaned workstation or convince them to provide personal financial information.

4) Penny Stocks with Nearly Legitimate Acronyms: Penny stock spam tries to influence the market by creating false hype about a stock. This is also known as the "pump and dump" scheme. A large amount of stock will be purchased by foreign investors prior to an email campaign, and when talking about a 3-cent stock, an increase to 4 or 5 cents represents a significant increase in capital. Spammers sell off the stock before market watchers catch wind of the email campaign and then pocket the money of clueless investors.

5) Win a BlackBerry: Who doesn't want to win a Blackberry? And to win one for free is even better! Spammers are notorious for driving their victims to a hacked site with the lure of a product.

6) False Headlines: Though this is not an uncommon tactic, there were new strains of false headlines in June. False headlines employ shock value to lure someone to click a link that then offers a Trojaned executable to the client of the person clicking on the link. Many of these headlines include rumors of abuse in Iraq, corruption and sex scandals in local governments and colleges, etc.