In October, 63 billion junk messages were sent daily, on average, compared with 31 billion a year ago, according to data from IronPort Systems. Another anti-spam specialist, MessageLabs, reports that 88.7 percent of all e-mail sent in October was unsolicited. That percentage is expected to rise to nearly 90 percent in November and December.
That could add up to a huge pile of unwanted e-mail. IronPort predicts that the number of spam messages will average 78 billion a day in December, up from 38 billion last year.
Internet service providers and anti-spam companies are working hard to fight this onslaught of spam. But it’s a game of cat-and-mouse, and right now, the spammers are slipping away, experts said. “The anti-spam vendors are struggling,” said Natalie Lambert, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The best vendors are able to stop about 98 percent of spam.” That still leaves 2 percent that gets through, which is a lot with the current, increasing spam levels, she added.
Source : c | net news