The United States is still a safe haven for spammers. With U.S. anti-spam legislation doing very little to thwart spammers and the McColo takedown having only a short-term effect, we have found that due to low-cost and reliable hosting and anonymous domain registration, our country remains the world’s top source for spam.

The December report also reveals:

• “Twitter job” spam, which has been going on for months, is on the rise. It’s a scam that tries to get people to create Twitter accounts and send spam to their followers for money.
• This season’s Christmas-themed malware is focused on the recession, advertising fake luxury goods and brands that are “on sale” through email
• One year after the McColo ISP shutdown, spam has risen beyond the levels before McColo was taken offline
• January 1, 2010, marks the sixth anniversary of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, but spam levels have reached record levels in the six years since the legislation passed

Read the report in its entirety here.