Technology - The Persistence of Spam

[demiurgent]

So, I was listening to a report on All Things Considered last night. It was a good one, going in depth on the issue of e-mail spam. They talked with Jason Catlett, the head of Junkbusters Corporation, and to Alan Ralsky, who is the head of Creative Marketing Zone and who is accused of being (all right, is) a spammer.

During the report, Leann Hansen (I think) said that as a test, she stopped deleting spam e-mails for an 18 hour period, and was shocked to discover ten -- ten -- spams received during that time. I mean, ten e-mails. She was horrified.

Leann, I like you. You're cheerful and you make getting up on Sunday less onerous, what with Weekend Edition and all. But hon, you don't know what you're saying. From about three a.m. last night, when my machine shut itself off automatically, to about ten this morning -- a seven hour period -- I received sixty-two spam e-mails that were collected into Spamfire, my spam killing software. Sixty-two. Over the course of a 24 hour day, I usually recieve three or four hundred spams.

Horrifying? You bet. A shocking indictment against a system run amok? Sure. Uncommonly high? Not really. I expect I get about the average amount of spam daily that my friends do.

So if you're getting ten spams in 18 hours, Leann, please understand there are many, many people out there who'd happily trade with you.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I must be excedingly lucky! I only get half a dozen spam messages a day across 10 email addresses. ~Robin

Re: Technology - The Persistence of Spam

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

that's decidedly above what i am getting in a 24 hour period, and that surprises me because i am on the group-advice and moderators-request lists, two widely publicized mailing lists that have got to be on nearly every spammer's address list.

are you sure? or did you just multiply the influx from that 7 hour period? that would skew it, because you were counting during the most common spam run time.

i get about 120 a day counting duplicates and spam to mailing lists.

-piranha