More likely than not, you've probably noticed an increased flood of unsolicited e-mail piling into your e-mail box, offering anything from ways to make a quick buck to pornography of every type.

You're not alone it seems. The amount of spam has increased during the past year. BrightMail, which provides anti-spam software, said unsolicited e-mail accounted for 12.8 percent of the mail its corporate clients had received since September 2001, about double the share of the previous quarter.

As a measure of what was coming across my desk I counted my e-mail for one week beginning December 31. Of the 156 pieces of e-mail I received during the period, 20 pieces, or 12.8 percent was spam. That's an uncanny correlation with the statistic produced by BrightMail. My statistics were about the same in the previous week, so it was not an unusual week.

I'm not including as spam an e-mail reply to someone called "Sharon" confirming a telephone conversation that the company could offer her a special discounted rate of $89 per room for the Mrs. Massachusetts Pageant in April at Lombardo's.

I could have been nice and replied that the message had been mis-directed, and perhaps Sharon would have booked her place for the pageant. But I held off because the e-mail could have been a ploy from a spammer looking to test out if my e-mail box was active. Replying could have added my address to more spam lists, a mistake I made earlier last year.

Of the mail I received six were promotions for pornographic sites, including one that targeted paedophiles. One promoted quick ways for making $10,000 by working at home. Another offered custom build web sites for $400. Ironically, the company had the disclaimer at the bottom of the e-mail that it "strongly" opposes spam and offered to remove me from the list.

Again, it's difficult to tell if the reply link is a ploy to get my name added to an active spam list. I'll wait to see if I get any similar offers from the same company before deciding. Another e-mail offers me a chance to become an "entrepreneur" in the online gaming industry.

"Develop your very own Las Vegas style casino with no programming skills and no investment," the spammer said. "You can customise your website to your liking and obtain a licence for over 20 of the most popular games online."

I was also "specially selected" to participate in a "limited access" programme to allow me to "get out of debt and live a happy debt-free life".

And of course, I received the usual scam offer about a plot to steal millions from the state of Nigeria. These would be extremely funny if so many people did not fall for them. During November last year I estimated that I was receiving about two such Nigerian scam letters a week.

During my survey week I only received one. I love the inevitable spelling and grammatical mistakes. The sender claims to be Dr. Peter Obi, a "highly placed" official in the Nigerian national petroleum corporation who has purportedly managed to skim $27.5 million and is offering me 30 percent of the action - as long as I provide bank account numbers and other identification.

"Actually, we have not met before but a good friend of mine has expressed real trust and confidence in your business - wise and recommended that I should contact you. Given your status. I have no hesitation in reaching out to you for participation in a venture that will be of great benefit believing strongly that you would of course treat the proposal with all the maturity and urgency it deserves."

Yea right. Straight to the dustbin with you Dr. Obi.

According to BrightMail, Nigerian scam letters were the second most frequent type of spam received in 2001 out of the 162 million individual spam attacks tracked by the company. In third place on the spam hit parade were e-mails offering some sort of product or means of making money out of the September 11 terror attacks in the US.

The most frequent type of spam received was for sales of Viagra. BrightMail said its clients had received about 300,000 pieces of e-mail offering Viagra. Sex sells, the company said. Interestingly I cannot ever remember being offered a chance to buy Viagra by e-mail during 2001. Perhaps the spammers know something that I don't?

There is a serious side to all of this.

"Deleting unwanted e-mail is causing a drain on employees' time across United States and Europe and is beginning to interfere with the productivity of global companies," BrightMail says. "In addition, the strain being placed on corporate networks can further impact their bottom line. Wasted bandwidth, slowed networks, server crashes, and increased network management overhead are all becoming major issues for network managers."

So as you face the screen again in 2002 with bleary but wiser eyes, keep your fingers on the delete button.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. You can contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.