Responding to spam
I am not sure how accurate the numbers are but if you believe a recent study, an astonishing number of people try to buy stuff from spammers. Ars Technica reports:
Good luck trying to find an Internet user who admits to responding to spam. Still, they’re out there, and in pretty good numbers. According to a new report, a full 12 percent of Internet users have actually wanted to pay for some product or service being advertised by e-mail.
Be honest: have you ever responded to a spam e-mail? Do you know anyone who has? If you’re like most of us at Ars, you can’t fathom why anyone would respond to most of the messages we get, but a new study released by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) shows that there are just enough people responding to make spamming worthwhile—especially since most spam these days is sent by botnets.
According to the group’s latest report, a disturbing number of e-mail users respond to spam, and not just because they’re dumb—some of them did so because they were actually interested in the product or service. Shocking, we know.
The survey only involved 800 interviews and I am always suspicious of small sample sizes. Nonetheless, it is clear that spam is a big business and enough people are responding to make it profitable for the spammers (and scammers).
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