MessageLabs outlines the world’s top spam destinations

by Steve Ragan - Sep 28 2009, 18:15

MessageLabs has produced a series of reports that detail the top spam destinations in the U.S., UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia. At the present, MessageLabs says that worldwide, including the places mentioned in the five hotspots, the spam rate peaked at 92.83 percent as of last Saturday, holding a monthly average of 88.96 percent.

Starting with the U.S., the spam capital is Idaho, with 93.8 percent of spam, far exceeding the global spam rate for September. Idaho jumped 43 spots since 2008, when it was ranked the 44th most spammed state. One interesting aspect to the U.S. report is that that top three spammed states were among the ten least spammed in 2008. After Idaho, Kentucky, New Jersey, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Arizona round out the top nine most spammed states. There was a three-way tie for tenth place between Maryland, North Carolina, and New Mexico.

“Some of the high spam levels seen across the U.S. can be attributed to the economic challenges experienced globally since the end of 2008 as well as Internet advancement including the high adoption of social networking,” said Paul Wood, of MessageLabs Intelligence.

“Spammers have taken full advantage of both the economic uncertainty of some and the trustworthiness of others for their own rewards. Automated tools, resilient botnets and targeted spam campaigns are all part of the spammers’ toolkit and they are constantly evolving these techniques to outsmart any effort to stop them.”

In the UK, Alton in Hampshire takes the title of spam capitol, after finishing in second place in 2008. The five most spammed towns, Alton, Teddington, Havant, Cirencester, and Brighton, received more than 189 junk email messages per user per day, which is the same level as last year’s spam capitol Egham, Surrey.

“Eight of the UK’s most spammed towns and cities are new to this years’ top ten listing and all have a high percentage of SMBs, suggesting spammers are targeting those businesses who potentially are less likely to have spam filters in place,” noted Wood.

According to the report, the most targeted sectors in the UK included business admin services and education, followed by recreation and accommodation, and catering.

Moving into Germany, the top capitol is Hamburg, which had a spam rate of 95-percent, followed by Berlin, Kempten, Essen, and Lingen, to round out Germany’s top five. Message Labs noted in their Germany report that all of the top ten cities have a spam rate of more than 90 percent.

In Australia, more than 90 percent of all emails are unwanted, according to Wood. To prove his point, the top suburbs in Australia mirrored the totals in Germany with more than a 90 percent spam rating.

Auburn (NSW), Barton (ACT), Camperdown (NSW), Chatswood (NSW), Mulgrave (VIC), and Silverwater (NSW) accounted for the top suburbs by spam level. City wise, Canberra, Hobart, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane made up the top five. The most spammed industries in Australia are healthcare, wholesale, and professional services.

Back to North America, Wood noted that, “Some Canadian businesses are experiencing significantly high spam levels…” The business sectors of retail, recreation, professional services, and marketing, were the hardest hit.

While spam went coast to coast in Canada, the east was hit the hardest with New Brunswick taking the top of the list. After New Brunswick, the top spammed provinces included Quebec, followed by British Columbia in the west, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.

The full MessageLabs Intelligence reports are online here.

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