Two thirds of emails now spam: official

Spam hotspots are emerging as the global levels of junk mail worldwide continue to increase. More than two thirds (67.6 per cent) of the 840m emails scanned by filtering firm MessageLabs last month was identified as spam. MessageLabs figures also indicate significant regional variations and spam “hot spots”, despite attempts to deter spammers through legislation. Currently, email traffic sent to the United States, the UK, Germany, Australia and Hong Kong represents more than 97 per cent of the global spam volumes being filtered by MessageLabs. The US was the worst hit, with 83 per cent of total traffic identified as spam. This fell to 52 per cent in the UK, 41 per cent in Germany, 32 per cent in Australia and 30 per cent in The Netherlands. In Hong Kong spam represented 27 per cent of total email volume. The figures suggest spammers are targeting English-speaking countries and regions where the proliferation of Internet/email usage is at its highest. Mark Sunner, Chief Technology Officer at MessageLabs, commented “The US presents the widest market for spammers in terms of Internet access and adoption of email as a communications tool. While it currently has the worst global figure at 83 per cent, it’s only a matter of time until the UK falls victim to similar volumes in around six-months time, whilst Asia-Pacific countries will likely see the same impact in 12 months time. When it comes to the Internet, when the US sneezes, the rest of us catch a cold.” Full Story