ZDNet UK: Spammers use your cat's name to sell you Viagra

Left, Ms. Spyware

Many have suspected that spammers keep track of which subject lines cause certain people to open emails, hoping to re-use key words with which those individuals may prove most susceptible. In this way, some people find themselves pelted with arbitrary words in subject lines that also contain the name of a key colleague or company with which they do business. But now MessageLabs reports that some of that intelligence may be coming from an evil union between spyware and spam. The email security firm said that it has evidence that some spyware programs harvest contacts for just this purpose.