Spam levels drop suddenly

The closure of a web-hosting firm in the US has led to a dramatic reduction in the level of spam, according to a security firm.

San Jose-based McColo.com was taken offline on Tuesday following an investigation by The Washington Post.

Two US internet service providers (ISPs) pulled the plug on the hosting firm which was believed to have had spam gangs as clients.

McColo.com was under investigation by the newspaper for four months; it was shut down on 11 November when evidence was handed to the two US ISPs hosting McColo.

One anti-spam firm Ironport has seen junk mail levels drop by 70 per cent since McColo was taken offline.

"It is an unprecedented drop but will be a temporary outage as the networks move from North America to places where there is less scrutiny," said Jason Steer, a spokesman for Ironport.

In a recent study, computer scientists in the US found that spammers get one response to every 12.5 million emails they send, yet they still manage to turn a profit.

www.ironport.com
www.washingtonpost.com

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