U.S. World's Foremost Spam Nation In 2004

der Kopf writes "As reported by ZDNet, '42 percent of all spam sent this year came from the United States,' which makes the U.S. the unthreatened king of the 2004 spam hill. Number two on the list is South Korea (with 13.43%), while China can be found in third place (with 8.44%). The U.S. put out more spam this year than all the other countries in the top 12 combined." All depends who's counting, I guess.

Obviously

[btbo]

If you'd ask me, 90% or more comes from the US, through relays all over the world...

flawed data

[+Addict-09+]

These reports use records at arin/apnic/ripe/lanic to determine country of origin. Just because an ip was issued by ripe (for instance) doesn't mean it's being used in Europe.

Re:flawed data

[kaarlov]

Usually there is information about the country where the ip is assigned in the registries' whois-records. And there are compiled lists which quite accurately tells in which country ip-address is located. On of these is http://countries.nerd.dk/ [countries.nerd.dk]. Of course they aren't 100% accurate, but enough for purposes like this.

Right!

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Austria (Europe) and all the spams I get at home and at work (over a hundred a day) are in English and address subjects relating to the US. All the mortgage spams refer to US mortgages, all the Viagra Spams refer to pharmacies that deliver to the USA, all prices are in dollars, and so on.

Most European countries have tough anti-spam laws. I get practically no spams that come from Europe or specifically target Europeans. The last Spam I got in German was from some dumbass dot-com newbie who had bought a CD-ROM full of "guaranteed legal e-mail addresses" from some US scammer.

The problem with spam is a problem with the USA.
Fix it.
Now.

Wrong: China is Still #

[Anonymous Coward]

The statistics in the original article is misleading. In total volume, the USA may be #1. Yet, if we weight the numbers based on GDP per capita, then China is #1, followed by South Korea [phrusa.org].

In other words, the USA has more computers than China. Once China reaches a higher level of prosperity, with the same number of computer desktops possessed by the USA, then China will easily exceed the spam level generated by the USA.

Re:Wrong: China is Still #

[TFGeditor]

I block all email based on IP. If the IP is registered in APNIC, LACNIC, or RIPE, it goes to the SPAM bin. SPAM from U.S. and Canadian IP addresses goes to a different folder, then reported to FTC and originating ISP via SpamCop.

The ratio varies from 30/70 to 20/80, with the majority percentage coming from foreign (to the U.S.) IP addresses.

In other words, anecdotal evidence indicates most SPAM comes from countries *other* than the U.S.

Re:Wrong: China is Still #

[TFGeditor]

Lame reply to my own comment, but forgot something.

The majority of U.S.-sourced SPAM I receive comes from the following ISPs:

Comcast
Road Runner
EarthLink
Pacbell
Ameritech

In that order.

Re:Who is the real badguy?

[Neduz]

I'd say your friend is the bad guy. Why doesn't he look for a decent job like most of do? "He is doing it for his master ..." isn't an excuse. We're all human being with our own mind, only brainwashed people, or people who were tortured could say "I was doing so because I was asked to". Other people using this as an argument are just too lousy to take their responsibilities.