A new report by GFI Software finds that LinkedIn, PayPal and Amazon were the brands most often spoofed in spam emails containing malicious links. GFI reports that all of the scams preyed on users' belief that they were visiting authentic sites and required active participation by victims who needed to click on malicious links within the spam emails.

A report on the role of the CMO released this week by IDC notes that the chief marketer will be more concerned and consumed with data than ever before, mostly due to online channels and social chatter. Remarked an analyst who authored the report, "without exaggeration, I’ve seen more change in the CMO suite in the last year than perhaps the last 30 years combined."

A new report from NPD DisplaySearch forecasts that tablet shipments will outstrip notebooks, 240 million units to 207 million. This marks the first time that tablets will grab more than 50% market share, up from 38% in 2012 and 26% in 2011.

Zoho CRM has announced the launch of MailMagnet, a smart filtering tool that gives users a complete view of email correspondence with customers and prospects and integrates with location-aware apps and a document-management system. The tool also allows users to share email exchanged with specific customers. 

In order to help prevent phishing attacks from an unauthorized sender spoofing an email address, banks are starting to collect special branded top level domains, such as dot-citi, dot-bofa and dot-barclays. The challenge comes with consumer recognition, as end users do not know yet that these domains exist and might mistake legitimate emails for scams.

With mobile opens up 82% over last year, email marketers are turning their attention towards making the small screen's inbox as engaging as the desktop. Multimedia - animated GIFs and video - is beginning to appear in some campaigns, but adoption is stunted due to device and OS fragmentation, large file sizes, and a compromised viewing experience on a mobile device. 

Many Yahoo Mail users are complaining of accounts being hacked beginning last night, which may be the result of a hacker uploading a video to YouTube demonstrating how to compromise a Yahoo account by leveraging a DOM-Based XSS vulnerability. Yahoo is investigating the situation but has not to any specific vulnerability.

Canada's tough anti-spam law was passed in 2011 but now may not go into effect until 2014. Business objecting to the law's new regulations may be putting pressure on legislators which is slowing the law's enactment. 

Inbox management application Glider offers a similar value proposition to other tools that assist consumers in their quest to inbox zero. Unlike most competitors, however, Glider automates the process after about a minute of training and a few hours for it to become familiar with your inbox. Glider runs on a Gmail account and in Chrome only currently, and is priced at $9/month after a 14-day free trial. 

CRM, email and social marketing company InfusionSoft has closed on a $54 million round of funding led by Goldman Sachs. The company competes with Eloqua (recently purchased by Oracle for $871 million) and HubSpot (recently closed a $35 million round) in an intensifying CRM / marketing automation field, with much attention going to small and midmarket companies. InfusionSoft plans to use the cash to educate small businesses and add functionality to its CRM and lead generation services.