Viagra spam fills mail inboxes

Spammers are constantly finding ways into inboxes

Triple-X action, Viagra and diet pills dominated spam e-mails in 2003, according to AOL research.

Throughout the year, more than 500 billion junk e-mails were stopped by AOL before they reached customers.

Despite recent legislation in the US and the UK attempting to regulate and control unwanted e-mails, spammers continued to find ways into inboxes.

More than half of all e-mails sent globally are spam, say experts, much of it coming from outside Europe.

Hard fight

Figures from e-mail security firm Clearswift also suggested heath-related junk mails saw the biggest rise by the year's end, making up almost 50% of spam.

Pornographic e-mail spam made up a surprisingly low 14% of unsolicited e-mails, according to its research.

AOL said the battle to stop spammers is getting increasingly complex despite new sets of legislation.

AOL's TOP 10 SPAM SUBJECTS Viagra online (also xana, valium, phenterime, soma, celebrex, valtrex, zyban, fioricet, adipex) Online pharmacy (also online prescriptions, meds online) Get out of debt (also special offer) Get bigger (also satisfy your partner, improve your sex life) Online degree (also online diploma) Lowest mortgage rates (also lower your mortgage rates, refinance, refi) Lowest insurance rates (also lower your insurance now) Work from home (also be your own boss) Hot XXX action (also teens, porn) As seen on Oprah Source: AOL 2003

The US Can-Spam Act, which came into force on 1 January, allows Americans to opt out of receiving unsolicited computer messages.

In the UK, the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications has made it a criminal offence to send e-mails from within Europe unless the recipient has agreed in advance to accept them.

Professional spammers are not being deterred by legal threats, and are using different tricks to bypass filtering technologies, said AOL's spam fighting team.

Mis-spelling words, adding spaces or other characters in the middle of words and even using poetry and prose are all methods they are using to get their wares into our inboxes.