Fifty-three percent of adult e-mail users in the United States now say they trust e-mail less because of spam, down from 62 percent a year ago and about the same as a June 2003 Pew survey.
Pew also found that 22 percent of e-mail users say they are spending less time on e-mail because of spam, down from 29 percent last year. In 2003, it was 25 percent.
No confidence intervals, so I don't know just how much of a difference this really indicates. Obviously they think it's significant.
"This shows some level of tolerance that people are manifesting," said Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow at Pew and the study's author. "Maybe it's they're getting used to it. Maybe it's like other annoying things in life - air pollution, traffic - they are just learning to live with it."
And then there's this,
Pornographic spam is on the decline, replaced by fraudulent "phishing" scams aimed at stealing bank passwords and other sensitive information, the study finds.
Maybe people just started ignoring the pornographic spam. Since the providers only get revenue if the spam actually gets results (cliking on the links, visiting their site, etc.), the best way to discourage them is to just ignore them. The cost of spamming is not zero, but it is low. So I'm a little surprised that they are giving up. (Surprised, but certainly happy.)
The "phishing" is a different thing altogether. These are attempts to defraud people and should be dealt with as such.
You've heard it a million times, but it bears repeating. Don't ever give out your passwords or account numbers in response to an e-mail. No reputable company will ever ask for them that way.
Unfortunately, the potential profit (or plunder) for phishing spammers might be better than it is for the pornography spammers. They might prove harder to get rid of. But if we all just ignore them... maybe. Just hit "delete".
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