Where Does Email SPAM Come From? [VIDEO]

254 messages? I must be important.

The U.S. Produces Third Most Spam In The World

Unless we're talking about the delicious and indestructable canned meat, spam is the scourge of the first world. It fills up your inbox with offers of Viagra and free vacations, and all it takes is one wayward click to infect your computer with a virus. The question that has plagued us ever since the deluge began: where does it all come from?

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New research points to India as the culprit, from whence just over 1 in 6 spam and junk emails hail, says SophosLabs, a computer and data security company.

The company's annual "Dirty Dozen" report points the digital finger at the world's worst junk mail offenders, and India tops the list with nearly twice as much as Italy, the nation in second place. The U.S. came in third.

But before you go haranguing your nearest Indian call center, know that Sophos experts believe a large portion of India's computers are doing it unwillingly. The country's lax security systems have resulted in personal computers being turned into spam-spewing relay points, which means the spam itself may not actually originate in India.

So the next time a Nigerian prince says he has a suitcase full of money for you and all you have to do is wire him your bank account number, at least you kinda know where he's coming from.

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