Sophos has also identified new tricks being used to harvest e-mail addresses for spam purposes. The first asks recipients to forward their chain e-mails for a fake research project, while another campaign encourages users to visit a video tribute Web site, which then requests their e-mail address in order to view the full video.

"Integrated anti-malware and anti-spam protection is getting the better of illegal spam peddlers - forcing them to get more creative and crooked. However, if people are playing their security cards right, the spammers' efforts will still be in vain," says Myroff. Despite hefty fines and sentences being dealt out to guilty spammers around the world, those behind these intrusive e-mails continue to take their chances.