Spam Continues to Plague the Internet

Below are some highlights from the Pew Internet & American Life Project February-March 2007.  Click HERE for the complete report in PDF format.

Among current email users:

• 68% of emailers, say they almost never unintentionally open an email message without realizing it was spam
• 27%, say they do that once in a while
• 5% say they do it often
• 51% email users say they check their spam folders at least once in a while
• 46% say they check it almost never or not at all. In addition
• 23%, say they have clicked on a link within a spam message in order to get more information, down from 33% in 2003
• 4% of email users admitted to ordering a product or service from an unsolicited email. This number was 7% in 2003, 5% in 2004, and 6% in 2005

Some of the highlights of the survey conducted between February 15 and March 7, 2007, include:

 

• 55% of email users say they have lost trust in email because of spam.
• 52% of email users report having received pornographic spam, down from 63% two years ago and 71% three years ago.