India has become the top spamming nation in the world, suggests a report compiled by a security firm.
Compiled by security firm Sophos, the report ranks nations by the amount of junk mail routed through computers in each country. India has leapt to the top of the spam chart in less than a year, rapidly overtaking the US, said Sophos. Almost 10% of all junk mail sent across the web came from or passed through computers in India.
The top twelve spam relaying countries for January - March 2012
1. India 9.3%
2. USA 8.3%
3. S Korea 5.7%
4= Indonesia 5.0%
4= Russia 5.0%
6. Italy 4.9%
7. Brazil 4.3%
8. Poland 3.9%
9. Pakistan 3.3%
10. Vietnam 3.2%
11. Taiwan 2.9%
12. Peru 2.5%
Other 41.7%
The vast majority of spam comes from home computers that have been compromised by hackers.
Once a machine is under a cybercriminals control they use them to send out mail on their behalf, typically relaying it from another nation.
Social media
Facebook and Twitter have for some time been targeted with campaigns but, most recently, new social network Pinterest has been used by spammers to distribute posts linking to webpages offering to sell goods, or earning commission for the spammers
For further information visit the Sophos website.
Please note that Action Fraud is not responsible for the content of external websites.
To report a fraud, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.