Spam seasonal shift favours Arnie and assorted tat

Mankind's in-bred fondness for buying tat to clutter up our homes has caused the latest seasonal shift in the type of spam we are receiving in our inbox.

With the exception of perennial favourites such as pornography, body enhancements and generic Viagra, items sold through spam email tend to have a fairly short life expectancy, as marketers service a perceived need in the market and then move on, partly due to a drop in demand and partly to stay ahead of the filters.

Alyn Hockey, director of research at Clearswift, said his company has identified definite campaigns, which run according to the same kind of seasonal variation as offline products. Last month was a particularly good month for Natural Viagra, for example, which Hockey attributed to the sun shining and people "feeling good and looking for something to pep them up a bit".

For example, the race for Governor in California has seen the arrival in our inboxes over the past month of T-shirts promoting the campaign of running man Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Joining Arnie among the top promoted products via spam are life-size dolls, the Robosweep vacuum cleaner, fake Jennifer Lopez engagement rings and the ever-present printer cartridges, which appear to be a good year-round sell for the spammers.

Figures from Clearswift show that healthcare products, and general product promotions account for 52 per cent of all spam. Financial services is the next biggest inbox nuisance, accounting for 17.2 per cent, while porn comes third with 13.6 per cent.