12% of people stupid enough to shop through spam

Thanks, jerks.

It’s the question most internet users can’t seem to wrap their heads around. Why is spam so prevalent? Could anyone possibly be that stupid? What the hell is the point? Surely no one ever buys anything presented to them through the medium of spammy e-mails, right?

Wrong. The practice may live on because, in short, it actually kinda works. In a recent survey conducted by The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, or MAAWG, a smallish sample of 800 people revealed some surprising information about the practice of unsolicited e-mail marketing.

Per the study, just under half the respondents (48%) indicated they’d never clicked on or answered spam. So, that means the other 52% have, which is understandable counting in stuff like your cat walking on your keyboard or a sluggish mouse. Now in this survey, 98% of the people polled have two or more e-mail addresses and consider themselves to to moderately to strongly aware of issues surrounding e-mail security. But 12% of those surveyed- wait for it… actually responded to spam out of interest.

Yes, it’s true. Spam may be keeping on because it’s a worthwhile marketing venture. Recent estimates by Microsoft have spam pegged for 97% of all e-mail traffic worldwide. And 80% of that spam is bot-net related, so… dolla dolla bills, y’all!

So, come on, 12 percenters- out yourselves. What have you tried to buy from spam?