Spam email fools millions of American Internet users
Spam email has been with us for over 30 years now, having celebrated its birthday in May 2008. With that in mind, surely it’s been with us long enough that no one is now fooled into responding to the offers of mail order brides or penis enlargement solutions. Apparently not.
The phenomenon that has come to be known as spam was born on May 3, 1978, after a U.S. computer company sent out a message regarding a product launch to 400 email addresses. At that time, each email had to be sent manually by an actual human being. These days the whole thing is a lot easier for the crooks behind them, with botnets handling the process automatically.
Spam email ranges from phishing attempts, with criminals trying to persuade you to readily give up your bank or credit card details, to offers for weight loss cures, replica versions of branded products, and a lot more besides. Spam has become something which most people ignore, letting their email provider deal with it so they don’t have to.
But not everyone has cottoned onto the practice of spam email. Ars Technica reports on a new study by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) which suggests there are still a great many gullible people out there.
The MAAWG conducted 800 interviews both by phone and on the Internet. Everybody interviewed was resident in the U.S. and had an email address considered private and for home use. Although the majority of interviewees claimed to be experienced with Internet security, the numbers taken in by spam email are vast.
A slight minority of 48 percent stated they had never clicked on a spam email. But that leaves a majority 52 percent who had done so, and had admitted as much. Twelve percent of interviewees claimed to have responded to a spam email because they were actually interested in the product or service being advertised. Seventeen percent claimed they had made a mistake, 13 percent did it for no particular reason, while another 6 percent did it just to see what would happen.
These figures are truly shocking because I’d assumed that very few people were actually gullible enough to respond or even be tempted to respond to an unsolicited email from someone they didn’t know. Whereas if these figures were placed on the total population of the U.S. it would mean millions of people were really that gullible. Which is, quite frankly, pretty scary.
No wonder the amount of spam email we all receive continues to grow, with 90 percent or more of all email now thought to be spam. If the spammers are catching otherwise sensible people out then why the hell wouldn’t they carry on sending it to us all.
Related Posts:
July 16th, 2009
Thing is… I’m one of those people who eventually bought a SizeGenetics penis enlargement device from a email and it actually worked!
Personally I think door to door mailings are more annoying, at least with emails it gone with a click of a button!
July 16th, 2009
Give penis enlargement a try!
July 16th, 2009
I remember getting those infamous “please update your AOL account” phishing emails in 1999.
And who can forget the legendary “You have won $100,000 please give your bank account number so I can send it to you” …emails from our friends in Nigeria.
October 6th, 2009
i think spam has become something which most people ignore, letting their email provider deal with it so they don’t have to.
December 14th, 2010
Spam email fools millions of American Internet users =[
May 2nd, 2011
Spam sucks! My site admin email gets spammed everyday it’s http://www.ExpandEnhancement.com
June 1st, 2011
Spam started in 1978?…by actual people. Interesting. In the same way that “google” has become an verb, “Spam” (the food) should feel privileged that “Spam” made it’s way into our vocabulary as a verb as well…have no idea the connection between a food item and getting marketing e-mail.