Consumers are turning to instant messaging and VoIP in a bid to escape the bombardment of their inboxes by spam email messages, according to research.
A report by IDC predicts that spam volumes could top 40 billion this year and could overtake the number of person-to-person emails sent for the first time in 2007.
Mark Levitt, vice president of the Collaborative Computing and Enterprise Workplace project, said: "Spam volumes are growing faster than expected due to the success of image-based spam in bypassing antispam filters and of email sender identity spoofing in getting higher response rates."
Mr Levitt predicted that facilities such as instant messaging, as well as free and low-cost VoIP calling, will lead to a slowdown in email growth.
He said that this will be especially evident among teenagers and those in their 20s.
The report comes as recent research by Get Safe Online found that five million UK computers could be at risk from hackers.
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