McAfee pays people to reply to spam

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 20 Dec 2007 at 11:54

McAfee is planning some unusual research for the New Year to highlight the risk of replying to spam emails.

The security software company will be paying five users to reply to all the spam email they receive in a 30-day period. The idea behind the stunt is to get a better picture of what the repercussions of doing this are.

Academics will plough through all the spam the guinea pigs receive, in a bid to determine the latest spam threats.

Participants will be paid £300 for their efforts, which is a small reimbursement for a month of work, and a possibly catastrophic increase in levels of spam.

According to recent research commissioned by Microsoft, one in ten internet users has replied to a 'lottery scam' email, and 13% have clicked on links contained in them.

If you are interested in taking part in the McAfee research, send your age, gender, occupation, daytime phone number and the average number of hours you spend online each day to superspam@redconsultancy.com.

We just hope McAfee can find your email amongst the spam it will doubtless receive now its email address has been published online...