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12% of E-mail Users Have Responded To Spam

Posted by timothy on from the related-stories-are-must-reads dept.

Meshach writes "An article in Ars Technica claims that 12% of internet users have actually responded to spam messages and tried to buy items. Although I find this hard to believe, it does explain why my spam folder is always full." Also in spam news, wjousts links to a Technology Review article about how spammers get your e-mail address, writing "E-mail addresses in comments posted to a website had a high probability of getting spammed, while of the 70 e-mail addresses submitted during registration at various websites, only 4 got spammed."

8 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. no kidding? by Em+Emalb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    12%?

    Really? I honestly thought it would be much higher...just basing that off of some of my daily interactions with people. It's a good thing breathing is an involuntary action, cause there are a lot of people out there who'd forget to.

    --
    Sent from your iPad.
    1. Re:no kidding? by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's what I though too, 12% seems a bit low. I've observed a lot of users who really can't tell you which stuff in their inbox they actually signed up to recieve versus which are just spam. Half the stuff they sign up to receive looks as shady as spam anyway... I just had a conversation this morning where I tried to teach a user to tell the difference between sales hype and legitimate information. He just couldn't get it, it was too much for him. He constantly forwards me things like "AMAZING NEW DISCOVERY...!!!", asking "what do you think of this, should I order it?".

      --
      Caveat Utilitor
    2. Re:no kidding? by Jason+Earl · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The folks responding to the "enlarge your member" ads didn't want to fess up.

  2. Definition of "Spam?" by Hyppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The entire premise of this article depends on the definition of "spam." One could mark a legitimate business' unsolicited email as spam, but that doesn't mean that purchasing a product because of the material in one of those emails is newsworthy.

    Nigerian princes in peril are another matter, though.

  3. No suprises. Some problems. by w0mprat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The data may be skewed: users may consider offers from genuine mailing lists 'spam' whether they've signed up to it intentionally or not, when completing a survey. This more relevant stuff is more likely click-worthy. The survey doesn't necessarily make this distinction and account for it.

    Otherwise, it is somewhat believable as many individuals new to the internet learn many lessons the hard way.

    Mind you, "but another 13 percent said they simply had no idea why they did it; they just did." explains why I still receive 'send this to 10 people or you will has bad luck' from otherwise intelligent and educated people.

    --
    After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
  4. Re:Lately... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If I remember correctly, the purpose of those emails is to try to confuse Bayesian filters.

  5. Re:Lately... by Phroggy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every so often I go through my spam folder, it's pretty funny. I've noticed lately that a lot of them don't even have links, it's like they're just trying to annoy us. For example, I received this yesterday:

    Forge your huge love sword

    and that was it. No link, no pictures. My theory is I have a really good friend who goes through a whole lot of effort just to make me smile. Either that, or it's an insult on my manhood designed to make me feel inadequate.

    A lot of spammers aren't very smart. They use pre-built off-the-shelf tools, and sometimes they click the wrong button and end up accidentally sending a mal-formed message to three million people by mistake. Sometimes there's a bug in the software, or it's just misconfigured. It doesn't really matter to them - after all, it doesn't cost them anything to send the spam, because they're stealing resources from others.

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  6. Re:Lately... by redJag · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or they are looking for hits on transparent GIFs to determine the quality of their mailing list.. ;)