Spamming in the USA

Happy New Year! With the end of 2004 comes a dubious distinction for the United States. The USA is far and away the world’s biggest “Spammer”. No…we are not talking about food. Yes…we are talking about those annoying emails that indiscriminately plague computer users throughout the world. Spam mail has become one of the Internet’s biggest problems. A report published by Sophos, an anti-virus/anti-Spam specialist, states that most of the world’s Spam originates right here in the good old US of A. But we are not alone. Many other countries are big offenders as well: South Korea generates 13% of the world’s Spam, China 8%, Canada 6% and Brazil 3%. Still these figures are nothing compared to the whooping 42% generated by the United States. That’s three times South Korea the nearest competitor. Over the past three years, Spam has grown rapidly. In 2002 Spam comprised 25% of all emails. In 2004 that figure swelled to 40% and by mid 2004 Spam represented 60% of the billions of emails sent each year. In the Netherlands action is being taken. Last May the Dutch government instituted a ban on unsolicited e-mail to consumers. This week they proved they are serious. On Tuesday the Dutch government issued three separate fines against Spammers. The fines ranged from $61,000 $27,000. The stop Spam movement is expanding. Eight other European countries have agreed to cooperate with the Netherlands and share information about Spammers.