Effect of UCE
Cost
A 2004 survey estimated that lost productivity costs Internet users in the United States $21.58 billion annually, while another reported the cost at $17 billion, up from $11 billion in 2003. The world-wide productivity cost of spam is estimated to be $50 billion. On a world-wide basis, the IT cost of dealing with spam was estimated to rise from $20.5 billion in 2003, to $198 billion by 2007. An estimate of the percentage cost borne by the sender of marketing junk mail (snail mail) is 88%, the percent cost borne by the sender of junk e-mail is 0.01%, with the recipient paying the rest.
Origin of spam
Origin or source of spam refers to the geographical location of the computer from which the spam is sent; it is not the country where the spammer resides, nor the country that hosts the spamvertised site. Due to the international nature of spam, the spammer, the hijacked spam-sending computer, the spamvertised server, and the user target of the spam are all often located in different countries.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsolicited_commercial_e-mail