According to latest data from anti-spam software provider Brightmail, more than 5.25 million spam attacks were recorded last month, comparing to 1.4 million for the same month last year. It found that after financial services, products sales are the second most common subject of spam, at 28%, whilst pornography is third, accounting for 11% of unsolicited commercial e-mail.
At the same time, UK e-mail service provider MessageLabs has found that more than 17% of all e-mail across the internet falls within its definition of spam, according to CNet News which cites the company's latest monthly report.
According to the report, the manufacturing and engineering sectors are currently the first targets of spammers, with health care following. Also, US companies face a much bigger spam problem than British businesses.
The Brightmail spam statistics for September 2002 can be found at:
www.brightmail.com/pdfs/1002_spam_attacks.pdf
www.brightmail.com/pdfs/1002_spam_definitions.pdf