One in every eight e-mail messages contains spam, according to latest statistics released yesterday by e-mail security company MessageLabs, noting that the volume of spam has "drastically increased" during 2002.

In January 2002, the company identified approximately one in every 199 UK e-mails as spam. In June, this figure was one in 36. But figures for November suggest a rate of one in eight. September was even worse – at one in five.

MessageLabs found that US spam levels have also increased dramatically, with one in every three e-mails currently classified as spam.

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