There was I thinking that the problem of spam had been pretty much solved due to spam filters and Web users applying a little more common sense these days than they used to. But no, it seems that people are still receiving tons of spam each year, and some of those people are even responding to the unsolicited email. Many are buying Viagra. And making things hard for themselves.

The amount of spam I receive in my inbox has gradually fallen over the last few years until it’s now just a trickle of messages which find their way through the filters. But out of the few hundred which make it through each year, not one has so far persuaded me to throw my instinct out of the window and click on it to buy something.

However, according to a report by Dmitry Samosseiko titled ‘The Partnerka — what is it, and why should you care?‘ (PDF Link) there are still many gullible people out there on the InterWebs doing just that. According to Ars Technica, the report by the Sophos security researcher looks into the growth of spam networks and especially Russian affiliate partner networks otherwise known as “partnerka.”

The sales records for one online pharmaceutical called GlavMed reveal why spammers persist even in these more enlightened times. Each spam campaign launched in its name produced more than 20 purchases a day.

That’s 20 gullible people around the world thinking it would be a good idea to hand over payment and shipping details to a company that has picked them out at random and tried to sell them something. How many of these people would do the same if someone came to their door and demanded hundreds of dollars for a product they don’t know anything about?

Each purchase worked out at around $200, so those 20 new customers equate to around $4,000 per day per campaign. Of which, $1,600 goes to GlavMed thanks to a 40 percent commission rate. And with figures like that it’s no wonder spammers continue to try and blight our lives.

If only everyone would stop buying or responding to unsolicited email then this would cease to be a problem. All the while even a tiny minority of people continue to be taken in like this then the situation will continue on. I’m just thankful for Gmail and its glorious spam filters.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 11:27 pm under Ecommerce, Internet, Opinion, Spam, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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