The world's top 10 spamming countries account for 55 per cent of the total global spam volume, says Secure Computing, a public company that provides enterprise security solution, in its Internet Threats Report.

Spam is the unwanted e-mail messages that you find in your mail box. It is primarily electronic junk mail sent to your e-mail account or even your cellphone.

Spammers are continuing to use pop culture and current events (US elections, Olympics, etc) to entice end users into responding or clicking on links whose sole purpose is to download malware.

So which countries are the world's biggest spammers?

South Korea sends slightly less spam than India, but with a contribution of 2.87 per cent to global spam it is the world's 10th largest spammer.

India is one of the top 10 spammers in the world and it accounts for 2.99 per cent of global spam.

The country is the world's 9th largest spammer, and as its Internet infrastructure improves with rising prosperity the amount of spam or unsolicited e-mails emerging from India too is likely to multiply.

Colombia takes the 8th spot amongst the world's biggest spammers and accounts for per cent of global spam.

When you send e-mails to many people at the same time, use the BCC (blind copy) field so that the recipients are unable to see the other addresses. This also helps curb spamming.

The government too can help curb spam by enacting legislation that punishes offenders.

Don't give out your e-mail ID on instant messengers, chat rooms, et cetera.

Great Britain accounts for per cent of global spam and is ranked 7th largest spammer.

Being aware of spam and of ways to secure yourself too helps curb the menace.

You should never buy anything through an unsolicited e-mail. By buying through such messages, you help keep such business economically viable.

Instantly delete unsolicited e-mails, for such messages can also harm your machine by spreading viruses or worms.

China ranks 6th among the The world's top 10 spammers and accounts for per cent of global spam.

Upgrading your Internet security to ensure that spammers can't send spam via your computer.

Never reply to a spam message and never click on any links, especially 'unsubscribe' links in such messages because then you give yourself away as a real user and thus leave yourself open to be spammed even more.

Italy, the world's 5th largest spammer, accounts for per cent of global spam.

Various methods to save yourself from incoming spam exist. These include:

Using spam-filtering software. Trend Micro, Symantec, Computer Associates, Sophos (Satcom), McAfee, Netscreen, Prime Infotec, GajShield Infotech and Websense provide specialised anti-spam solutions in the Indian market.

A spam filter is a piece of software that sorts incoming e-mail messages and blocks those that it thinks are spam. While filtering can be very useful, it's not perfect as sometimes filters fail to identify spam-and they mistakenly block a genuine, non-spam message. Adjusting the filter settings can help minimise these risks. To prevent this one can also choose to direct spam into a special folder set aside for reviewing all messages that the software filter tags as spam.

Brazil, with per cent of global spam, ranks 4th in the world.

Spammers continue to use pop culture and current events like the Olympics or US elections to lure users into responding or clicking on links whose sole purpose is to download malware.

Turkey ranks number 3 in the world when it comes to spamming. It accounts for per cent of global spam.

Among the types of spam, male enhancement, product replica, prescription drugs, gambling, pornography, debt job offer, phishing were the major contronutors.

Over 6.7 per cent of global spam emerges from Russia, making it the world's second largest spammer.

The Secure Research report says that there was a 45 per cent increase in the average number of porn sites found daily since January 2008.

50 pre cent of all Web sites' content is now in non-English languages, and this too is adding to the growing spam volume.

The United States is the world's largest spammer and accounts for more than 16.5 per cent of global spam.

Spam is up 280% from last year (at this time). This year's peak on spam volume was March 27 at 185 billion spam messages. Since March we have seen spam steadily decrease.