More ramblings on SPAM

It is funny read comments from people new to the SPAM debate. Especially those who think there is a simple solution. Like a “do not spam” list. These people don’t understand the technology or the history of the SPAM fight. There has been grassroots efforts for years. The reverse of a do not spam list is a blacklist of senders. These have been around for years and don’t work. Wired did a good job summarizing the reasons the do not spam list will not work.

In case you too are missing some of the research material on the true costs of SPAM, I am re-posting here an excerpt from NW Fusions with pointers to the recent studies:

In a recent report by Nucleus Research, spam was estimated to
cost U.S. companies over $800 per employee per year in lost
productivity:

Ferris Research estimated that U.S. corporations in 2003 will
spend $10 billion to cope with spam:

Some projections from the trends are alarming (others might say
“alarmist”). If the growth in spam continues, according to
Jupiter Research, “the average e-mail user should expect to
receive nearly 3,900 junk e-mail messages per day in 2007”:

Public rage against spam is rising. According to a November 2002
poll by Harris Interactive, an overwhelming majority (80% of a
sample of 2,221 adults) of the U.S. Internet-using public found
spam “very annoying” and 74% of the sample wanted spamming made
illegal: