Chicago, Illinois - (Website Hosting Directory) - December 22, 2006 - According to managed web hosting provider, SingleHop, businesses should prepare for a record breaking spam season, fueled largely in part by the increase in online consumer spending.

Zak Boca, President of SingleHop remarked, ”Spam is the insidious byproduct of life online. And when the stakes are high — especially during the holidays — expect spammers to try every trick in the book to separate consumers from their dollars. The key is to be on your guard and make sure you have your filters up.”

According to SingleHop, these are the Top Five Ways spam can ruin your holidays this season:

1) Spam has nearly doubled since 2005 and now occupies more space in your in box than any other kind of mail.
2) New forms of spam can self open, and automatically add you to a distribution list when you attempt to unsubscribe.
3) This season’s spam is designed to circumvent filters.
4) Phishing spam messages emulate legitimate sites — like eBay and bank sites, and are designed to trick you into surrendering personal data.
5) Offshore spam mail from criminals has dramatically increased, looking for people with a “get rich quick” mindset. If any solicitations include wire transfers, attorney’s names, cashier’s checks or deposed royalty, hit the delete button immediately.

Mr. Boca continued, ”There’s a holiday spike in spam every year because spammers specifically target those that are shopping. With technological advancements spammers can design messages to penetrate spam filters, which is why you’ll find so much spam in free online email providers. Most businesses utilize an Internet Service Provider. Make sure that your provider’s filters are constantly updated and that you augment this with your own spam filter system. It’s literally a trench fight.”

SingleHop, Inc. is a fully transparent managed dedicated server ISP, located in Chicago, IL. SingleHop was formed to deliver low cost managed IT services for the small to medium enterprises from a central Midwest hub location. The company has capacity for over 2000 servers in one datacenter, with a network powered entirely by Cisco.

To learn more, please visit: www.singlehop.com.

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