Both the names of Barack and Michele Obama were frequently abused by spammers in their campaigns during December, according to SPAMfighter, a European anti-spam software developer. The company's researchers estimate that the trend will intensify in January, with the inaugural ceremony approaching.

SPAMfighter is an IT security company headquartered in Denmark, with established offices in U.S. and Thailand. It specializes in the development of free (download) and commercial anti-spam software for home and business consumers. The company proudly maintains to be backed up by the world's largest spam fighting community, counting over 5,8 million users.

The anti-spyware vendor says that an analysis of over 1.4 million spam e-mails submitted by its community in December revealed that Michele Obama was the female celebrity name most used in spam campaigns circulating last month. The soon-to-be First Lady of the United States was seconded by troubled pop diva Britney Spears, according to the analysis. Paris Hilton, who's website was just recently hacked, scored third, while Angelina Jolie, came in fourth.

The U.S. President-elect Barack Obama topped the chart by far, when it came to male celebrity names used by spammers during December, SPAMfighter says. Martin Thorborg, co-founder and CMO of SPAMfighter, has told Softpedia that “This is only the tip of the iceberg. As the big inauguration day nears, it's likely we'll see an even bigger increase in Obama-related spam.”

In an e-mail to us, SPAMfighter researchers have stressed that “E-mail users can beat spammers to the punch, however they must be vigilant.” They have gone on to outline the risks of opening spam e-mail, explaining that “By clicking on spam, users identify their e-mails as a working address, and it is then sold off to more spammers resulting in even more spam.”

Other IT security companies and organizations have also warned about the trend of profiting from the fame of certain individuals through spam, phishing, and fake or hacked social networking accounts. Barack Obama has made the subject of spam campaigns before, especially during the recent elections. “E-mail users should get their Michelle Obama and celebrity gossip fix from trusted blogs and Web sites, rather than risk opening unsolicited e-mails,” SPAMfighter advises.