Study on the Effects of Spam on End Users 448
An anonymous reader writes "'About a third of people responded to a spam, seeking more information. And 7 percent actually bought a product or service.' Who are these people? Is this really what non-techies do with Spam? They can have my Spam if they want it :-)"
One problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
CB
Senate Bill (Score:3, Interesting)
spamassassin.org (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, the spam comes with a modified subject (beginning with *****SPAM*****) and a report such as
SPAM: . : . . : . : . . Start SpamAssassin results . : . . : . : .
SPAM: This mail is probably spam. The original message has been altered
SPAM: so you can recognise or block similar unwanted mail in future.
SPAM: See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details.
SPAM:
SPAM: Content analysis details: (6.4 hits, 3 required)
SPAM: Hit! (2.7 points) Subject contains lots of white space
SPAM: Hit! (3.7 points) BODY: Information on getting a larger penis
SPAM:
SPAM: . : . . : . : . . End of SpamAssassin results . : . . : . : . .
Now, I'd suggest you ask your provider to install such a filter on his servers.
Responses to Spam (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got my Dad well trained... he usually blocks anything that's not from a user in his address book, and deletes anything with an attatchment that he was not expecting. He's not exactly a techie, but he's a lot more savvy than a lot of non-technical internet users
My mom on the other hand, still seems to believe that it's all personally directed at her, and that she should either respond, get angry/offended/whatever, just as if someone she knew in meatspace said/sent it to her. :-)
She's learning, now, but quite often she looks at stuff like those banner ads saying "Speed up your internet connection..." or "You have won..." and she's just not worked out yet that it's all lies. The worst are those emails which claim it's a new critical update from Microsoft. It took ages to convince her that Bill's Boys don't send out neccesary updates through email.
It's the folk who don't have a reality check in the form of a friendly techie around that I'm worried about. If not for me, my folks PC would be riddled with trojans, virii and other malicious software.
-- Soluzar
Effect on me? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm setting up my own Email server (yes, paid the extra bucks to get a business broadband account), complete with filters, attachment blocking, etc. Even purchased and read a couple of books on the subject... it's proven to be quite an educational endeavor.
When my kids are old enough to use Email (pretty soon now), I want to provide them with something at least partially filtered by dear old dad... I' ve even saved about 2000 spam emails to help train the filters. I don't want to have the birds-and-the-bees conversation with my kids any earlier than I have to (and explaining some midgets-in-leather porno spam is NOT on my preferred activities list).
Doing something is so much better than just bitching, and so much more satisfying.
it's not simple (Score:5, Interesting)
Take my Dad, for example. He's happy keeping in touch with his operatic society via their mailing list, and using email - you forget how big a "Wow!" moment you had when you first got your head around the whole idea of free global communications - but he's still printing out the latest "MS Security Patch" fakes and asking me if he needs to do anything with them.
He also keeps asking if there's anything I can do to stop the semi-porn spam - and other than the usual precautions, the answer is still "not really".
It may be natural to us old pros to just hit delete, but to people new to the technology it's not that straightforward.
People think it's polite to mail back saying "actually, I don't want this mail" rather than LARTing them to the ISP, looking up their address from WHOIS, burning down their house and sowing the ground with salt like we do (it's not just me doing this, is it?
Basically, there are always going to be enough people making enough mistakes whilst learning to keep spammers happy...
Mind you, anyone who buys a Penis Patch probably deserves all they get!
From what I gather... (Score:5, Interesting)
Much more interesting would be a survey of the last time they responded or bought something from spam, versus how long they have been using e-mail. You could draw more conclusions from that.
Re:tried to remove themselves (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:how to trace spam? (Score:4, Interesting)
Confusing clients (Score:4, Interesting)
It can be a bit annoying, because of course clients don't understand these things are just spam sent out in their thousands, and think they are from real people criticising their web sites. Of course the standard Slashdot response is to laugh at such people for being dumb, but often this type of spam is created in a deliberately deceptive way to make it look as if it is from a real person.
Unenforcable, Political (Score:5, Interesting)
I see this as more toothless-tiger feel-good legislation that politicians sign to get votes. I for one don't buy it for a second.
Spam study uses spam? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's math (Score:5, Interesting)
That little realization is really scary to me. I don't FEEL above average. Actually I feel I could be a hell of a lot smarter. My IQ is above 150, and I'm well educated. (It's not bragging from an "anonymous handle" is it?) Yet I feel dumb often.
Which makes me feel fairly hopeless to think about your 'realization'. There are many people under 100, marginally educated, who are: driving, voting, holding office, raising children, listening to Rush Limbaugh, purchasing firearms... OMG !! If I sometimes wonder if I'm properly qualified to do all those things...
Not to mention the loneliness.
Excuse me now I have to go purchase a small island and fortify it.
Correcting for such error (Score:2, Interesting)
You separate into groups; the response group R, and the "Fuck off" group F. Say that F is 1000 people or so; you now take a subsample of F, say 20 people, and you harass them at all hours of the day until they give you a straight answer. You then assume that the 20 people you randomly chose to harass in this manner are representative of the entire 1000, and multiply the ratio accordingly.
Of course, most surveyors don't have the nerve to do the statistical analysis properly, and frankly I can't say I blame them.
Re:Have a gambling problem? We can help... (Score:3, Interesting)
1. People may receive mailings from a company they once did business with, offering them worthwhile products. But if they've forgotten about their original dealings, it will look like UCE.
2. Some (otherwise) reputable companies may get hold of a targetted mailing list and send spam that is actually not for sex aids and scams. I've seen a few 'honest' spams in my time.
3. People like me follow links in spams simply out of curiosity. If I get an unusually novel one, or one displaying new techniques in stealth, I often (carefully) investigate it.
mean and wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
100 is the most common value, or the Mode.
100 is the midpoint of the values, or Median.
100 is the average value or Mean.
If you're talking about something without a normal distribution, then extreme values on one side will drive the average down, but most of the population is above average.
In Lake Wobegone, "All the children are above average." Maybe they have a lot of terribly stupid adults, so that all the children can be above average. I knew something bothered me about that place.
They Obviously Do (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess we should stop trying to make laws to stop spam. If it were something like 5% of responded to a spam message and 0.01% actually bought something, I could see the argument for illegalizing it. However, a figure this high suggests that people actually want these offers (I haven't a clue why, either, so don't ask).
Maybe this is better as I would much rather have spam than DRM, and it appears spam has been used as one of the arguments in favor of locking down the Net.
I would rather suffer the inconvenience of freedom than the frustrated meaninglessness of life under tyranny.
Spam (Score:3, Interesting)
They emailed me back, saying the company will never do this again since the response was so hostile, and they had learned their lesson!
I was curious, so just now I did a search for the company. They are not in business anymore, but people are still using and maintaining the product.
So I have technically responded to a spam, but I never actually bought anything from one.
D