McAfee® anti-spam researchers have been tracking a new trend nicknamed "spam island-hopping.” To disguise themselves, spammers use the domain names of small islands as Web site links in spam campaigns so spam filters that traditionally catch more well-known domains can’t find them. McAfee traced spam activity from the Isle of Man to the tiny tropical island of Tokelau in the South Pacific.

Traditionally, spammers have used well-known top level domains (TLDs) such as .com, .biz, or .info. By using top level domains from small island countries, such as .im from the Isle of Man, spammers attempt to avoid detection by using domains previously unknown to spam filters. Using a lesser-known top level domain makes it harder to distinguish spam from legitimate e-mail by examining the links in the e-mails.

This trend was first discovered when McAfee researchers noticed a significant increase in the use of .st domains, which is the top level domain for Sao Tome and Principe, a pair of small islands off the west coast of Africa. This unusual activity raised a flag for McAfee's researchers, who then
tracked the spammers on a virtual migration around the globe. Subsequently, spam using top level domains from small islands has continued to increase.
   
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