While the email service providers believed that the hard economic times could account for the increase, SpamHaus' Linford said the trend was a natural result of an increase in new anti-spam technologies. Such technologies have made it harder for the Internet marketers to connect with unwilling customers, so they compensate by sending out more email. "They are getting really bad returns, so they have to spam millions more," Linford said. "It's happening because it is nearly free to send email to a million people. It would have happened regardless of the economy." The increase in spam may be a blight for users and companies, but it's gold for the email service providers. Brightmail, which focuses on providing services to large Internet service providers such as the Microsoft Network and Earthlink, expects to double the number of email accounts it scans to 200 million by the end of the year. The company's products already screen more than two billion emails every month. Postini closed its third -- and last -- round of funding, for $10m, in January, and the company processed its one-billionth email message in April. In addition, new firms are entering the market: MailFrontier closed its first round of funding this week, netting $5m. Legislation, rather than an arms race with spammers, is needed to curb spam, Linford said. "We are hoping that the US government will bring in a federal anti-spam law," Linford said. "That will take care of the majority of the problem." If the United States passed a restrictive law, other countries would be more likely to follow, he said. "We will still have the spam gangs, but they will be doing it illegally," Linford said. "We would be running them out of business, or underground."
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