Receiving a few hundred spam messages a day is bad enough, but spare a thought for an unfortunate Orange user who's the target of a server-straining 44,000 junk mail missives every 24 hours.

Three of the five most spammed individuals on the books of spam filtering service ClearMyMail.com use Orange as an ISP. The other two received a deluge of unwanted ads through private domains registered with 123-reg/GX Networks.

The most heavily besieged member of the quintet, Colin Wells, a workshop foreman for Stagecoach buses, is sent the equivalent of 16 million spam messages a year.

Prior to signing up to ClearMyMail last year, Wells was spending two hours a day deleting an ever-increasing number of junk emails from his inbox. Before switching to ClearMyMail, Wells used a service that bounced back emails to a sender. The approach rapidly proved unworkable and possibly contributed to his problems by inadvertently revealing that his email account was active.

Wells, from Exeter, was reluctant to change his email address despite the deluge. "ClearMyMail came along at just the right time – my only other option was to change my email address which I've had for years and is connected to all my log-on details for various sites, but it was getting to the point where I couldn't see any other alternative," he said in a statement.

Dan Field, managing director of ClearMyMail, explained that Wells became the particular target of spammers because he made the mistake of clicking on the unsubscribe links of spam emails when he first started using the account. "That just confirmed that the email address was active allowing spammers to sell on his details to other junk mailers, further increasing the amount of spam he was receiving," Field told El Reg.

The junk mail sent to Wells ran the usual gamut of penis pills, stock spam and phishing scams. Although Orange tagged most of the offending content as spam in its subject line, Wells was still in the position of having to download and delete the junk prior to signing up to ClearMyMail, Field added. ®

ClearMyMail's most spammed UK customers

1. 44,001 emails blocked per day - Orange ISP
2. 13,578 – Orange ISP
3. 12,428 – Private domain using 123-reg/GX Networks
4. 5,760 – Orange ISP
5. 3,982 – Private domain using 123-reg/GX Networks

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