Spam levels remained stable in May, and are unlikely to fall in the future, a new report suggests.

IT security company Softscan revealed that 88.51 per cent of all the emails it scanned in the month were classed as spam, showing how much of a problem this remains for UK businesses.

Despite the arrest of Robert Soloway, the company did not predict that spam levels in the UK were likely to fall in the near future.

"Some people are predicting that spam levels will drop with the arrest of the so called 'Spam King' this week," explained Scansoft's Diego d'Ambra.

"However, I always think it's a mistake to underestimate a spammer, it's a sure fire way of finding yourself ambushed.

"Every business has a contingency plan and there is no reason to suspect that spammers are any different."

Mr d'Ambra added that spam levels, which had been quiet over the last eight weeks, increased by 25 per cent recently, suggesting that it will continue to be an issue IT professionals need to monitor.

Robert Alan Soloway was arrested on May 30th in the US and is thought to be one of the biggest spammers in the world. He is accused of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud.