The research gurus at International Data Corporation predict that more than one trillion unsolicited e-mail messages will be designed for you in 2003.

On the other hand… AOL, with 14% of the worldwide Internet market, will block around 284 billion spams this year. Extrapolating: Worldwide e-mail servers will grapple with 2,097,000,000,000 junk messages… That’s two trillion to you and me. But one-to-two trillion is chump-change next to what happens at your mail server.

When a spam attempts victim-delivery… your over-worked email magnet typically does reverse dns and block/black list checks, then tries to send a non-delivery report to the spammer (who isn’t really there). Your mail server keeps trying several times before giving up. Thus, one spam can create more stress than six or seven legit messages… and “one-to-two trillion” becomes “six-to-fourteen trillion” worth of work.

When you think about it, mail servers need protection more than people do.