TalkTalk users choking on spam

TalkTalk, Carphone Warehouse’s ‘free’ broadband offering and Force9, are the most spam targeted UK internet providers, according to new research from a security firm.

An average of 95 per cent of all emails travelling via Force 9 and TalkTalk are spam or virus related, making the two ISPs joint top most spammed providers.

Anti spam service provider, ClearMyMail, released the statistics after studying data from the past two years. It appears both TalkTalk and Force9 are customers of the anti spam firm.

By contrast, Pipex came tenth in the list, with 84 per cent of emails being spam or virus related.

As for the originators of spam, the US is clear leader, with a hefty 48.9 per cent of all rogue emails coming from the States.

There is quite a step down to the next biggest culprit, which is the UK, with 13 percent, followed by China with 6.5 per cent.

Surprisingly, Russia, which is rumoured to home some of the world’s biggest spammers, does not even make an appearance in the top ten.

Dan Field, managing director of ClearMyMail, said: “These are some worrying statistics and I admit I was shocked when I saw some the names in the top 10 ISP’s who seem to take little or no action when it comes to preventing spam and even more shocked to see that the UK is still the second biggest source of spam emails received here”.