Why is there so much spam?

Why does spam work?

Simply put, spam continues to proliferate because it works. People click on spam.
A July 2006 New York Times article suggests that the top three most effective types of spam are:

Pornography (5.6% click rate)
Pharmaceuticals (0.02% click rate)
Rolex watches (0.0075% click rate)

Spammers are contracted by real companies to send mass email. There is a real and growing community of contractors who can send out "spam" messages. Since sending email is free, such small percentages of returns are acceptable--even profitable. The spam industry thrives on unsuspecting individuals who impulsively click on something interesting in their inbox.

A recent scourge of spam at Yale has been offering "inside information" on investment opportunities. Effectiveness of investment-related spam is the focus of a new study, “Spam Works: Evidence From Stock Touts and Corresponding Market Activity,” by Laura L. Frieder, assistant professor of finance at Purdue University, and Jonathan L. Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University.

How does spam work?

A significant percentage of spam is direct marketing. Spam starts out as a simple message-- a message that is sent to thousands or millions of email addresses. This kind of spam is like telemarketing--both have legitimate purposes and both are difficult to stop.

A disguised version of internet marketing spam is called phishing. Phishing is particularly dangerous because these folks are trying to collect and use your personally identifying information for the purpose of stealing or using your identity. Read more about identity theft.

Sometimes spam is self-propagating--and more dangerous. Much spam is loaded with what is called "mal-ware" or bad software. Viruses, trojan horses, and spyware can be linked or embedded in an email message, playing on the tiny percentage of unsuspecting individuals. Once someone clicks, though, the software propagates and spreads to more users.

How email lists are born

Spammers get their email lists in many different ways. Some are lists purchased from legitimate vendors where individuals have given permission to share their personal information with "partners." Spammers also obtain lists of email addresses from other spammers or from specialized contractors who harvest email addresses from the internet. Email addresses are "harvested" by automated robots that comb the internet looking for strings of characters with "mailto" links or an @ sign in the middle.

Why is it so hard to fight?

Spam is difficult to fight because there are so many different ways to fight it. Both the good guys and the bad guys are limited and enabled by the technology at their disposal. The technology of fighting spam is like a game of leap frog. When the good guys patch one hole, the bad guys exploit another.

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Why is there so much spam?

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