MUMBAI: People who send spam are using increasingly sophisticated methods to ensnare e-mail users. US Internet service proivder AOL said this while releasing its third annual Top 10 Spam messages list.

Topping the list of the most common spam messages for the year were counterfeit e-mails offering a chance to work for Donald Trump, new medical products for improving one's sex life or losing weight, and free electronic devices.

According to AOL the more widespread use of e-mail filtering tools and increased attention from law enforcement and legislators made a significant impact on the volume of spam it churned this year.

Pitches for pharmaceuticals come in at number 10, followed by deals on luxury products. Also on the list, sexually-oriented spam and phony personalized messages that appear to come from someone you know.

Media reports state that a disturbing trend tracked by AOL in 2005 was an increasing sophistication on the part of spammers, who appeared to be using more targeted and devious schemes to try to convince users to open their messages. The company said six of the top 10 e-mail campaigns it battled over the last twelve months fell into the category of "special order spam," or e-mails that went beyond the messages of previous years in trying to mislead potential recipients.

To counter people from ignoring the obvious junk, among the ploys that AOL cited as part of the trend toward smarter spam were e-mails that used subject lines crafted to seem as if they were sent in response to real messages, such as "Your Mortgage Application is Ready" or a simple "Thank You."

This year AOL blocked an average of 1.5 billion spam messages each day from reaching the e-mail boxes of the AOL Network. The total number of spam e-mails blocked by AOL in 2005 reached over a half trillion (556 billion), a slight increase over 2004.

The percentage of total e-mail that AOL blocks as spam at the gateway reached 80 per cent in 2005.