9 out of 10 e-mails now spam, from CNN

The number of “spam” messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide, according to U.S. email security company Postini.

And the press release from Postini that CNN is reporting on.

…a 59 percent spike in spam over that period [from September to November 2006]. Unwanted email is currently 91 percent of all email, and over the past 12 months the daily volume of spam rose by 120 percent.

It’s seemed to me that the amount of spam I’ve been receiving recently has been increasing, but I thought it was my imagination; nice to have it confirmed. As of starting up my computer this morning, the UNC spam filter caught 40 messages, another 8 made it through and Thunderbird caught those, and I have exactly 1 legitimate email. That’s a 2% signal-to-noise ratio. Makes me want to give up on email entirely. Of course, I’ve wanted to opt out of the US Postal Service for years now.