NZ 5th in SpamCup

New Zealand has the Bledisloe Cup, the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy and the netball World Cup, and now we are beating our Australian cousins at spam.

Kiwi spammers have stepped up to the mark set by the nation’s sporting champions and, per head, now send 10 times as many emails offering penis enlargements, mortgage refinancing and stock tips.

The first assessment of the estimated 90 billion spam messages sent each day puts New Zealand in fifth place in the Asia-Pacific region, well ahead of supposedly more hi-tech nations such as Australia and Singapore.

Christchurch is famous for having one of the world’s most prolific spammers, Shane Atkinson, who, at his peak in 2003, was sending out a million emails a day.

China is the top spamming nation in the region, providing 37 per cent of spam. New Zealand provides 4%.

(c) 2007 Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.