MediaBuyerPlanner: Spam remains the bane of the internet, but U.S. email users are apparently less bothered by it even as they report the highest volume of spam ever – perhaps because they have grown more sophisticated in dealing with it – according to a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, MarketingCharts reports.
Some key findings from Pew’s report:
- Some 37% of email users surveyed said spam had increased in their personal email accounts, compared with 28% who said so two years ago, and 24% three years ago
- 29% of those who have a work email account said spam had increased in those accounts, compared with 21% two years ago and 18% three years ago.
- Only 18%, however, say spam is a big problem, compared with 25% in June 2003.
- Nearly 3 of 10 (28%) say spam is not a problem, up from 16% four years ago
- Half (51%) say spam is annoying but not a big problem, compared with 57% in 2003.
- Those with both work and personal accounts are more annoyed with spam than those with only one type of account.
The volume of most offensive of spam – porn – has decreased, and users are becoming more sophisticated about handling spam, according to Pew:
- Three times more respondents said porn spam bothered them more than any other kind of spam.
- Half (52%) of email users report receiving pornographic spam, compared with 63% two years ago and 71% three years ago.
- Fewer women (46%) than men (58%) say they received porn spam.
- About two-thirds (68%) say they only rarely open a spam message because they didn’t realize it was spam; 27% say they do so sometimes; 5% say they do so often.
MarketingCharts offers up some more tasty spam tidbits.
Related stories:
- DMA Launches Email Authentication Help Center
- Return Path: Typos Big Cause of Spam
- 37% of Consumers Unsubscribe via Spam Button
- Porn Leads in Spam Clicks
