Saw this link on another forum, but thought I'd post here too.
According to a recent report from an e-mail security firm
Nearly all email is illegitimateLess than four per cent of all email traffic is legitimate, according to mail monitoring firms.
The remaining 95 per cent or so is made up of spam, viruses or error messages, analysis of millions of emails reveals.
Email security firm Return Path said 99 per cent of the computers it monitors are controlled by spammers or virus writers.
Calculating a 'reputation score' based on email traffic sent through 20 million addresses, Return Path found that only one per cent of net address could be classed as legitimate sources of mail.
The rest were hijacked computers used by spammers and other net criminals to send email.
George Bilbrey, general manager of Return Path, warned: "Ninety-seven percent of the email senders out there have terrible reputations. They aren't just suspect, they aren't just a little bit bad ... they are in the bottom of the barrel."
Source
