Spam 'turning people off e-mail'

[danceswithruskies]

Many are puzzled by how to deal with spam.
The waves of spam flooding into inboxes are beginning to turn people off e-mail, a study has found.
Some 25% of people said they were using e-mail less because they were receiving so much junk, according to US think tank Pew Internet.

But there were signs that spam works, with enough Americans taking up offers in unsolicited e-mails to justify the cost of sending thousands of messages.

More than half of all e-mails are estimated to be junk.

"People just love e-mail, and it really bothers them that spam is ruining such a good thing," said Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project and author of the report.

"People resent spam's intrusions. They are angered by its deceptions and they are offended by much of the truly disgusting content."

Porn distress

For the survey, the researchers interviewed 1,380 internet users in June.


Pornographers deserve a special place in hell as far as women and parents are concerned
Deborah Fallows, report author
The findings suggest that the recent big increase in junk messages is undermining the popularity of e-mail.

Some people said they were cutting down on their use of e-mail, while about half said they were less trusting of the internet.

The number of unsolicited messages is also affecting how people feel about the net. Just over two-thirds said being online was unpleasant or annoying because of spam.

But the most distress was caused by pornographic messages. Most parents and women were bothered by the fact that explicit images would appear in their inboxes and that they could seemingly do little to stop them.

"The general findings are striking, but inside the data are even more disturbing details about the reactions women and parents have with pornographic spam," said Dr Fallows.

"Pornographers deserve a special place in hell as far as women and parents are concerned."

Just hit delete

Leading companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and America Online have stepped up their efforts to stop spam and more and more governments are introducing legislation against unsolicited messages.


SPAM REPORT
52% trust e-mail less
76% bothered by obscene or offensive content
75% bothered that they cannot stop the flow of spam
33% have clicked on a link in an unsolicited e-mail
At a personal level, the most popular way of dealing with spam appeared to be hitting the delete button, with only a minority using filters to block the messages.

Perhaps more surprising, the researchers found that unsolicited e-mails actually work.

A third said they had clicked on a link in a spam message to get more information, while 7% said they had ordered a product or service advertised.

The percentage of junk messages has grown at a phenomenal rate over the past 12 months

A year ago, spam accounted for just 2.3% of all e-mails, according to experts. By May this year, the figure was 55%.

[BartyB]

I don't really care too much about spam in the sense described above.
What really gets up my nose is being inundated with crap jokes by people I barely know that are CCed to their entire address book.
Why do I object so much? not really because of the content tho' it's seldom funny but because my email address is being propagated and ending up in the computers of the sort of mindless jerks who not only send out crap jokes but more sinister stuff as well.
If you MUST forward garbage to folk you hardly know please

[glow=red,2,300]USE BCC[/glow]

[Ali]

Feb 12, 2011 9:50:19 GMT 1 BartyB said:

I don't really care too much about spam in the sense described above.
What really gets up my nose is being inundated with crap jokes by people I barely know that are CCed to their entire address book.
Why do I object so much? not really because of the content tho' it's seldom funny but because my email address is being propagated and ending up in the computers of the sort of mindless jerks who not only send out crap jokes but more sinister stuff as well.
If you MUST forward garbage to folk you hardly know please

[glow=red,2,300]USE BCC[/glow]

OOOOOOOOoooooooooooo I DO do 100% agree!!

Drives me insane to get these 'pass ons' and 'you must reply to 7 people today otherwise......'

I do ask people not to send them to us but that can appear rude.

Recently I changed the entire hosting server and have found that SPAM coming in now has been minimal in comparison to before when around 800 or so used to clog up my box

On BWi its been noted that we have recently had two new members that I feel only joined to be able to look at the members list and 'harvest email addresses' - which is why the post went up to make sure everyone has their email address hidden (pretty much everyone has anyway) - just another method of obtaining address to SPAM with. SPAM to me is receiving something I didn't want, from somebody I don't know and have no connections to.

[troll]

Feb 12, 2011 9:50:19 GMT 1 BartyB said:

I don't really care too much about spam in the sense described above.
What really gets up my nose is being inundated with crap jokes by people I barely know that are CCed to their entire address book.
Why do I object so much? not really because of the content tho' it's seldom funny but because my email address is being propagated and ending up in the computers of the sort of mindless jerks who not only send out crap jokes but more sinister stuff as well.
If you MUST forward garbage to folk you hardly know please

[glow=red,2,300]USE BCC[/glow]

Glad to know I'm not alone in feeling this. I really upset a friend by telling her I object to my addy being passed on in this way.

[Madame Moorhen]

Sensible, though must admit I've never thought about that. I just get annoyed by the chain letter type of email and also my french neighbour who keeps sending us enormous boring slideshows that take an age to download! I don't even bother to open them anymore! ;D

[Deleted]

It´s ok with chips though