Spam accounts for 96.4% of e-mail

Spam has risen for the sixth quarter in a row, with 96.4% of all e-mail now spam, says network monitoring firm Ipswitch.

Using its Spamometer system, which measures e-mail that is received, Ipswitch said the increase in spam for the quarter just gone compared with 95% the previous quarter, and the 84% for the same quarter a year ago.

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The biggest category of spam is related to finance, making up 41% of all messages in inboxes. A quarter of messages received relate to medication spam, and 21% are pornographic e-mails.

The rise in financial spam mirrors the current worrying trend for e-mails requesting recipients to call up illegitimate call centres and pass over personal financial information, known as "Vishing".

Ipswitch's research also found that spam from botnets accounted for 72% of all spam generated.