The United States continues to be the leader in spam, relaying 15 percent of the world’s spam messages, according to a recent report from Sophos that examines the top 12 spamming countries.

The United Kingdom has disappeared from the “Dirty Dozen” for the first time in two years, coming in at 14^th overall, and sending 2.1 percent of the globe’s spam.

Brazil has seen the biggest increase in spam, jumping from fourth to second place since last quarter. The country is now the source of 10.2 percent of spam emails, compared to 4.3 percent during the same period last year.

The top 12 spam relaying countries for January to March 2009 are as follows:

1. United States 15.8%
2. Brazil 10.2%
3. China (incl Hong Kong) 7.7%
4. India 5.1%
5. Turkey 4.1%
6. South Korea 3.8%
6. Russia 3.8%
8. Spain 3.0%
9. Argentina 2.8%
10. Poland 2.6%
10. Colombia 2.6%
12. Italy 2.3%

“The U.S. has gone some way towards reducing levels of spam since last quarter, when the country relayed almost a fifth of all the spam messages,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

“What’s less encouraging is that Brazil has shot up the ranks. It’s no secret that the country has long been associated with cybercrime – in particular the spread of banking Trojans – however, a surge like this could also be a by-product of China’s slip down the charts. In any case, it’s certainly a trend to keep a close eye on.”

Spam accounts for 97 percent of all email received by business email servers, putting both a strain on resources and wasting a huge amount of time to lost productivity.

“Of course, the real cause of the spam problem is that not everyone will automatically delete these emails on sight,” continued Cluley.

“People out there must be buying products from spam, after all – the criminals behind the botnets would soon give up if they weren’t making any money out of it. Computer users should know by now that buying from spam is contributing to the problem, as well as putting their personal information into the hands of criminals – everyone should pledge to never ever buy via spam.”