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World spam volume at 81.5%
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 18th July 2008
As part of its research into e-mail, MessageLabs has named the ten worst US states for spam volume.
According to a report published by MessageLabs – who, it must be said, have something of a vested interest in the whole spam issue – and quoted by Ars Technica, 81.5 percent of all e-mail traffic for the month of June was unsolicited bulk e-mail, or spam. Those figures are based on the three billion e-mail connections that the company analyses each day for customers of its anti-spam services, and represent a world-wide total. Within the US the total volume of spam sits at a higher 86 percent, with the worst state being Illinois with a whopping 91 percent.
MessageLabs Senior Anti-Spam Technologist – now there's a business card to be proud of – Matt Sergeant says as part of the report that “not only are spam levels increasing, we are also seeing several new and different types of spam. Spam has become mailed out in smaller, more targeted batches and spammers are using varying approaches from leveraging celebrity names and current events to grab attention to exploiting mainstream hosted services like Microsoft Skydrive and Google Docs to evade spam filters. Spammers are relentless in their tactics for exploiting computer users.”
The figures demonstrate that the famous CAN-SPAM Act enacted back in 2003 has done nothing to stem the flow of undesired e-mails for the US, something anti-spam campaigners are unsurprised about. With the Act not requiring advance permission before a company sends out an unsolicited commercial e-mail to an individual, and with very little spent on enforcement of the Act, it's clear that something drastic needs to happen before e-mail becomes unusable as a communications medium.
How do you deal with the ever-increasing flow of unsolicited bulk e-mail – and have you ever complained to a spammer's ISP to get them to stop? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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nice solution, i'll get my gun.... POW! POW! LMAO!!!!!
i'll be honest, i'm on gmail, and i've had one lil bit of spam sneak through in the couple of years i've been on gmail, saying that, my old hotmail doesnt let spam into my inbox either, that goes straight to the trash.
peace
You are clearly overreacting.
There is no need to kill spammers.
Chopping off their fingers and toes is a far more human albeit incredibly effective solution.
XD
We should cut out the portion of their brain which gives them computer literacy.. Then they won't even know how to type out the spam e-mails, never mind send them.
That's what I do to avoid being spammed, I'm constantly careful to hide my e-mail on any new forums I might register on or any other such services. So far it has worked well for me.
I don't see the current e-mail system lasting for a lot longer if those figures are true, it's just bad business to try to keep up on supporting such a lousy system. Perhaps making mailing software work similar to instant messengers such as WLM or ICQ where you need to "add" people to your list and they need to do the same before being able to talk - or mail in this case - would be a solution.
I wonder how the "outgoing mail should be scanned" idea would work exactly, who would be responsible for the accuracy of the scanning? If it's left to each machine, there's a gazillion ways to go around it. If it's left to the ISP's, getting the filters right so no important mails would be lost would mean that spam would be again possible with enough effort. Maybe I fail to see the point, but as such I don't see that working out any better than the current methods.
Take the calligraphy-section of their brain too, or else we might end up receiving snail mail-spam.
I did that, ended up replying enough times to talk to the actual spammer. he insisted that I tell him what was in the pic before he would open it. too much work on my part.
And you wonder why people think gamers are violent?
Already Hefty fines/jail and as soon as one caught another takes their place.. Only way it'll stop is to go after the financers of spam (sellers easily traced) After all Spam is trying to sell something and thats traceable. But The right wing f/wits won't do anything that affects their backhanders from the beneficiaries of spam (ie the spammers and their clients..) THANK GOODNESS for gmail and its spam filters - My spam bin peaked at 10K a month now down to under 1k a month :)
The root problem here is not the spammers, but the people who purchase products offered in spam. If you want to do something about spam, try sending out a bunch of it and then sending a TV crew to interview every moron who responds and broadcast it on national TV. Spam only works when people are dumb enough to buy what's advertised. The spammers aren't doing this for their own entertainment, they're doing it because it works and companies are willing to pay them to do it.