Email users learn to live with spam

By Steve Malone

Posted on 11 Apr 2005 at 10:08

Email users have come to accept spam as an unavoidable fact of life. They feel they are now receiving more spam than a year ago, and it is making them less likely to trust email.

These conclusions are part of a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report finds that even a year after the US CAN-SPAM Act came into effect, most users feel they are receiving more spam in their personal and work inboxes than a year ago. Now over half of those surveyed feel that spam is a big problem.

The feelings appear to be borne out by the facts. The study quotes a MessageLabs report that in an average month during 2004, spam constituted 73 per cent of email, up from 40 per cent in 2003.

The report says, the appearance of pornographic email seems to have declined, but there is a worrying rise in the number of phishing attempts with around 35 per cent of users reporting emails containing a phishing attack.

The survey found that 28 per cent users with a personal email account say they are getting more spam than a year ago as do 21 per cent of office users.

Although the figures appear worrying for companies that use email as a legitimate marketing tool, users appear to be learning to live with spam. 53 per cent of email users say spam has made them less trusting of email yet, a year ago 62 per cent said that spam made them more wary of email.

Similarly while 22 per cent of email users say that spam has reduced their overall use of email, this compares with a figure of 29 per cent a year ago. Finally, although 67 per cent of email users say spam has made online communication an unpleasant or annoying experience, 77 per cent said so a year ago.

The results come from of a phone survey of 1, 421 internet users in the US by the Pew Internet & American Life Project between January 13 and February 9, 2005.