Watch: what you can do to have fun with the spam you get. (Otherwise, beware.)

Despite a continuing fall in the quantity of spam e-mail, a recent study by Kaspersky Lab, a company dealing in internet safety and security software, has found that more than 50 per cent of internet email traffic is still spam. By region, the United States is the largest producer of spam with 12.4 per cent, Vietnam comes second with 10.3 per cent, while India takes the third place with 6.1 %.

However, while spam levels might be dropping, they're becoming more malicious and criminal, and often rely on a topic related to terrorism to look more convincing. Spammers are also selling fake tickets to the Rio Olympics.

In a press note, Daria Gudkova, Spam Analysis Expert at Kaspersky Lab said, “Unfortunately we are seeing our previous predictions about the criminalisation of spam coming true. Fraudsters are using diverse methods to attract user attention and to make them drop their guard. Spammers are employing a diversity of languages, social engineering methods, different types of malicious attachments, as well as the partial personalisation of email text to look more convincing. The fake messages often imitate notifications from well-known organisations and services. This is raising spam to a new dangerous level."

Obviously, the study needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, as pointed out by this John Oliver video, and more so because it has been released by a company that would profit from sale of security software.

The video above is of a Ted Talk given by British writer and comedian James Veitch, about the time he spent replying to a spam email by one Solomon Ondonkoh, a talk that was also part of his solo comedy show "The Fundamental Interconnectedness of Everyone with an Internet Connection."

What begins with a short reply "Solomon, your email intrigues me" and a "small quantity of gold worth $ 25 million" eventually becomes a convoluted back and forth with a metric tonne of gold at stake. To convince Solomon, Veitch sends him the following graph, whereby he "has discovered an undeniable correlation".

This went on for two weeks, and although there were "the two greatest weeks" of the comedian's life, it had to be taken to a conclusion. Since a decidedly absurd one was preferable, Veitch devised a code for safety and what followed was "one of the greatest emails" that he had ever received.

In conclusion, Veitch says, "I don't think what I'm doing is mean. What I'm doing is wasting their time. And any time they are spending with me is time they are not spending scamming vulnerable adults out of their savings."

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the modern usage of the term "spam" comes from a Monty Python sketch that was first televised in 1970. Set in a restaurant, the sketch depicts the frustration of diners who want to eat meat without spam, a canned pre-cooked meat that gave rise to many urban legends about its being a mystery meat, but are unable to do so.