Mainz, Germany  - Spam is losing none of its annoyance and is becoming even more dangerous, according to analysts at Sophos - a German security software firm.

During the third quarter, one out of every 416 e-mails contained a potentially dangerous attachment compared with one in every 3,333 e-mails in the second quarter, Sophos said.

The increase can be linked to a large series of malware-spam attacks over the summer. Fake mails were doctored to appear as if they were coming from delivery company UPS and designed to steal money or online identities. All the bigger attacks targeted computers running Windows.

More spam is being sent through social networks, according to the study. The United States leads sends around 18.9 per cent of the spam sent, followed by Russia with 8.3 per cent and Turkey with 8.2 per cent. (dpa)