Symantec Corp. (SYMC), the security software company behind such programs as Norton, every month cleans out its industrial-sized spam filters and issues a monthly State of Spam & Phishing report based on the result. In its April 2010 report, the company found the tea leaves suggest economic prospects are picking up, at least according to spam email using economic terms.

“While the United States consumer sentiment remained unchanged in March 2010, top ten subject lines containing economic keywords show that spammers have an optimistic view of the economy with job offer spam among their top spam subject lines,” Symantec said in its report.

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LeapFrog reported Q4 revenues of $137.8 million, down 24 percent from a year ago, and well below the Street consensus of $180 million. The company lost 70 cents a share in the quarter; the Street had expected a loss of 18 cents a share.

The company blamed the shortfall on a sharp fall in consumer sentiment, unfavorable exchange rates, widespread discounting and high retail inventories.

LeapFrog said that the retail inventory overhang from Q4 combined with the weak economy “will result in lower shipment levels in the first half of 2009 as we sell through remaining product.”

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