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Ever wonder why your inbox gets inundated with spam on a regular basis, even though you've never once clicked on a solicitation to enlarge your favorite body part? The answer is simple - while you might not be falling for the unwelcome sales pitches, there are plenty of others who are.
According to a new study by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), 12 percent of Internet users have wanted to pay for a product or service advertised by email. To come up with that number, the MAAWG interviewed 800 U.S. residents by phone and Internet without an email address managed by a corporate IT staff. Two-thirds claimed to be very or somewhat experienced with Internet security, while most of the participants used a spam filter.
Even though 82 percent said they were aware of bots and botnets, less than half (48 percent) said they never click on spam email.
"Although a small percentage of the computing population, these numbers still earn a significant enough return on investment to support a booming spam-driving underground economy," wrote MAAWG.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/paul_lilly
[2] http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/12-of-e-mail-users-try-to-buy-stuff-from-spam-e-mail.ars
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/according_cisco_90_worlds_email_spam
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/male_enhancement_spam_ring_dysfunctional_after_ftc_bust
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/whats_energy_cost_62_trillion_spam_emails
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/internet
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/spam
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/study
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/login?&commentfragment=comments_top_anchor