Well it’s now official. The Can-Spam anti-spam law in the US has had no effect on the avalanche of dross perpetuated against our inboxes each day.

“The CAN-SPAM Act appears to have had little immediate effect on the amount of unwanted email offers,” said Andrew Lochart, director of marketing for Postini.

Another firm involved in anti-spam technology, Brightmail, estimated this week that 60 per cent of all internet email sent in January 2004 was spam, a two per cent increase from the company’s measurement of 58 per cent in December.