India tops list of spam email spewers

NEW DELHI — A few years ago, Ankur Suri saw a friend beaten up by fellow classmates after he emailed pornography to female friends — or rather, his computer had.


In desperation, the friend went to authorities, who declined to investigate because they didn't really understand the problem of how his computer had been infected by malicious spam.

"I'd rather go to Google or Facebook than deal with the Indian law," said Suri, 25.

India recently notched a dubious distinction, beating the U.S. to become the leading spewer of spam email, according to the British Internet security firm Sophos Ltd. Nearly 10% of such emails is now sent from Indian computers, up from 7% in 2010, and many of the spammers don't even realize they're doing it.


"This is one record India doesn't want so much," said Sanjay Katkar, chief technology officer with Quick Heal, a security firm.

India is virgin territory for spam spewers as the country's burgeoning economy, improved broadband and rapidly expanding middle class add an estimated 7 million computer users a month, many inexperienced and using pirated software or old operating systems.


These Indians aren't just potential victims. As a certain percentage of newbies click on questionable email attachments or links to dodgy websites, Internet criminals next door or thousands of miles away take remote control of their systems, turning their machines into what Sophos calls "spam-spewing zombies" and what geeks call a "bot," short for Web robot.


Ruchika Shishodia, 29, a public relations employee who lives in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, said she sometimes uses pirated software and often notices her system slowing to a crawl for no obvious reason. She isn't particularly worried that it might have morphed into a bot, but is irked by a deluge of junk mail, especially those offering penis enlargement services or touting dubious financial offers.