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While the football forwards are playing offense on the field, spammers are making offensive maneuvers of their own, trying to leverage the World Cup for their own gain. Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCH), a leading provider of anti-spam software, has identified tens of thousands of World Cup-related spam messages, with some containing what appear to be fraudulent offers. World Cup spam has emerged in almost every language, and while some of it is actually related to the month-long football games taking place in Germany, most of it mentions the World Cup in order to sell typical spam offerings such as mortgages, online gambling and travel. Here are some examples of categories of spam and their related "World Cup" subjects: Mortgage refinance -- World Cup extra cashback offer plus new quicker payments Gambling/casinos: -- join the world cup tipping to win $10,000 in cash! -- kick off the world cup with a fantastic free bet basket! -- free world cup prediction game: your last chance to join! Travel packages & other products: -- fantastic family holidays in the sun plus live world cup coverage -- win a vip trip to the 2006 world cup final -- World Cup Special: Try our 32 different flavors (Spanish) Innovative ways to view the World Cup/Ticket Offers: -- See the World Cup on your PC (Spanish) -- 2006 FIFA World Cup now on mobile plus semi-final tickets to be won! -- Germany 2006 World Cup. Tickets in hand! "Spammers are trying to ride the World Cup's wave of popularity. They are promoting travel, mortgages, betting schemes, and even a few things that are actually related to the football games," said Amir Lev, President and CTO of Commtouch. "These spammers send their unsolicited messages to millions of people in the hopes that even a tiny percentage will purchase their services, legitimate or not. The convergence of spam and malware -- such as viruses and spyware -- can make such attacks even more dangerous." Commtouch's Global Detection Centers handles and inspects billions of email messages on a monthly basis, in order to detect and block spam and malware outbreaks in real time. About Commtouch Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq:CTCH) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the integrity of the world's most important communications tool -- email. Commtouch has over 15 years of experience developing messaging software and is a global developer and provider of proprietary anti-spam and Zero-Hour virus protection solutions. Using core technologies including RPD (Recurrent Pattern Detection(TM)), the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes billions of email messages per month to identify new spam and malware outbreaks within minutes of their introduction into the Internet. Integrated by more than 30 OEM partners, Commtouch technology protects thousands of organizations, with over 35 million users in 100 countries. Commtouch is headquartered in Netanya, Israel, and has a subsidiary in Mountain View, CA. For more information, see: www.commtouch.com, including the Commtouch online lab detailing spam statistics and charts.