Chinwag's Old Blog: 50% Less Spam for Europeans

Have a heart. According to a recent report from Ferris Research, the average US worked receives 10 spam emails per day, compared to only 5 for their lucky European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) counterparts.

In fact, the EMEA workers do particularly well, with one fewer offer for enlargement or other hitting their inbox than their Latin American peers. And the trend is up, up, up. By 2005, the US average is nearly 30 spam emails per day compared to 23 for Latin America and 22 for EMEA.

Perhaps AOL's recent targeting of the worst spammers will help disuade those who are operating outside the law. Sadly, the initiative doesn't apply to spammers based in the EU and there lies the rub. With privacy and spam laws varying so much between the US, EU and the rest of the world, the legislative route for tackling spam seems like a long and difficult journey.

In the short-term initiatives like the ROKSO from the Spamhaus project are a really useful way to tackle the most persistent spammers. Their stats indicate that almost 90% of spam is sent by a group of 180 or so individuals and losely organised groups, called spam gangs. Spamhaus provide a free DNS-based block list which is mirrored across the globe, allowing corporates and ISPs to actively block spammers. It's a free service maintained by an international group of volunteers and hat's off to them for their sterling work.