Egham UK's most spammed town

Egham has been crowned the UK's spam capital with businesses in the town receiving an average of 189 unsolicited emails a day.

The study by security firm MessageLabs found that Alton and Petersfield came in second and third in the list with businesses there receiving an average of 167 and 116 spam emails per day respectively.

None of the major urban centres came in the top 25 'spam cities'; London ranked 28th, Manchester 81st, Leeds 91st, Liverpool 99th, Newcastle 166th and Bristol 167th.

Matt Sergeant of MessageLabs said there was a difference in approach to internet security by companies in the big cities compared to those in smaller towns.

"Bigger organisations will typically have better policies in place when it comes to internet security, and these organisations are usually located in the UK’s larger cities," Sergeant said.

"By contrast, businesses operating outside of major towns and cities are usually small and midsize companies with less time and resources to devote to IT security," he added.

MessageLabs found that only 15 per cent of the spam emails received were sent from inside the UK, with the US being the primary source for most spam emails.

While Egham is weighed down by spam, Fareham in Hampshire is the least spammed town in the UK with businesses receiving on average two spam emails per week.

How many spam emails on average do you get a day? Let us know in the Web User forums.

www.egham.co.uk
www.messagelabs.com