Will spammers start pushing watermelon for erectile disfunction?

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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Watermelon
Word reaches me that researchers have found that eating watermelon has the same effect as taking Viagra.

Apparently, watermelon contains the chemical citruline which affects human’s blood vessels in a similar way to how Viagra can enhance sexual experience.

According to Dr Bhimu Patil, who lead the research project, “Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra… but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects.”

So maybe it’s a little err.. premature to suggest that spammers will find a healthy income from promoting the advantages of watermelon just yet. But we’ll keep our eyes open just in case we see a rising trend in the amount of fruit-related spam in our global network of traps.

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Curiously, the research which reveals the possibly pleasurable advantages of eating more watermelon comes from a group who might have an interest in promoting the juicy fruit – the Texas Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Centre.

* Image source: Mela Sogono’s Flickr photostream (Creative Commons)


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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