You've Got Spam: AOL Blocks 1/2 Trillion Spam

yohaas writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that AOL blocked more than 500 billion spam messages for its users in 2003. That comes to 40 messages a day per user. The company regularly blocks 75-80% of all incoming mail as spam! The article also lists the top 10 spam phrases for the year, including such come-ons as: 'Viagra online', 'Online pharmacy', 'Get out of debt' and 'Get bigger'."

Comments

Their mail server went down again, that's all

[corebreech]

AOL has been losing email for over a decade now.

(is this another dupe story?)

Outbound

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if they'd only block going outbound too!

It would be WAY too easy . . .

[dgrgich]

. . . to make a crack about the Post Office blocking the shipment of trillions of AOL CDs. I prefer to work for my karma. :)

They also block real mail

[wol]

They may block a lot of garbage, but they also refuse to admit that my email to my mother is not spam.

Maybe there is something she's not telling me.

Mom!

Re:They also block real mail

[NoData]

Maybe if you stopped sending your mother,
"Mom! The all new penis patch will get you bigger and harder than ever!" your email would go through.

stop spam now - top 10 phrases

[stonebeat.org]

I think the phrase "stop spam now" should be added to the list of top 10 spam phrases.
seriously, I get 5-10 spam email / day telling me how to stop receiving spam emails.

I don't know why I believed them

[Sarojin]

that was nowhere near 581%.

I am so sick of spam

[Anonymous Coward]

It has nothing to offer me since I work from home using my degree (obtained online) in pharmaceuticals. I have a huge cock, am quite rich, get my insurance for free and own my home outright. I do have to use viagra occasionally because it is sometimes hard to get it up for some good Oprah XXX action but I can get it through the pharmacy which I run online.

Re:Imagine.

[Gzip Christ]

It's been suggested in nanae that as a brutal display of the efficacy of spam-fighting and, most importantly, blocklisting, major ISPs all simultaenously turn off their spam defenses for a day to show users just how much UCE spew is clogging the internet every day.

So let me get this straight... you're asking us to imagine a beowulf cluster of spam?

Didn't you know? AOL...

[SailfishMac]

...bought the Post Office.

With those stacks of AOL disks laying around and the Post lady bringing you one every week, I thought it was obvious.

And this is the reason...

[FearUncertaintyDoubt]

...why AOL users have such small penises and breasts.

Re:You've got spam??!?

[Geek of Tech]

>> So for every inch they gain they probably lose one or two.

You think anyone would buy from spam like that?!

:P

Here is what I do to prevent SPAM

[Anonymous Coward]

Whenever something asks me for my E-Mail for any use other than shopping, I just put in support@microsoft .com and that works great, I don't get any spam.

Re:Imagine.

[dekashizl]

Though it makes my head hurt to see Jerry Stiller and Snoop Dogg in a commercial together. That's just wrong on so many diffferent levels...

Now wait just one minnizle.

Obviously, I can't speak for you....

[Anonymous Coward]

I appriciate them sending me dvd cases I can retask into storing pornos downloaded off p2p networks and freshly burned and ready for archiving.

Again. If they were spamming me by sending me actual hot wet nubile asian cheerleader teens willing to do my every bidding I'd have precious few complaints.

Re:Imagine.

[stoops]

or then people will just realize, "oh, that's why my viagra never arrived, they couldn't reach me to confirm my shipping details"