One thing you can say about spam: it rescues us from turning to the Reader’s Digest for humorous modern office anecdotes. Sure, it accounts for up to a 12.5 percent loss of productivity, but what would our email stories be like without it?
An online survey conducted by Reflexion Network Solutions revealed that most people receive between 50 and 200 emails per day, and 20 percent reported that 50-74 percent of all incoming email is spam. The company’s “Spam Personality” survey not only found that 96 percent of respondents spend an hour per day wading through the deluge, but had some interesting stories to tell.
One of the horror stories collected by Reflexion comes from Mark Hockhousen, Sales Operations Manager at New England Cable News, whose spam filter was a bit overzealous.
“My boss was in NY on some business at the corporate office. He sent me an email stating he needed me to fax some analyses we had done right away or we’d both be let go. The analyses had to do with the profitability of our division justifying its existence. I never got the email and never sent the information, so the division was shut down. The subject of his email – ‘Fax now or get laid off.’ Apparently, we could not get email promising to get us laid.”
A nasty self-replicating worm can result in an embarrassing situation for the unsuspecting as well. Imagine your pastor sending out porn to the congregation, as Tom Andrix recalls:
“The title of the spam message was ‘Check out this photo of my new girlfriend!’ The email was propagated from our pastor’s email account to the entire congregation. Parishioners that opened the email were downright horrified at the content. Needless to say, our pastor had a lot of explaining to do.”
Or how about this poor anonymous sap: “I received an email from Beth’, which happens to be my wife’s name, with the subject line, ‘Let’s pork tonight!’ Let’s just say that after a very brief conversation with my wife, the email did not come from her. Damn spam.”
Now, that’s very sad, isn’t it?
Reflexion gave out “Spammy Awards” based upon the highest percentages of reported spam by subject matter:
The top award goes to “medication” companies, whose offers for purple pills and weight loss tablets have reached 97.4 percent of our inboxes. The runner up award goes to the retail community, with 96.7 percent. Dishonorable mentions of the night went to spammers hawking body enhancements, pornography, gambling, investment opportunities, and of course, Nigerian princes needing money.
Often in an attempt to “hide” from spammers, the average email user maintains three active email accounts. And it’s not just the constant barrage of unwanted email that irks them. Almost all (99%) of respondents reported missing legitimate email to spam filters. Nearly half lost between 10 and 50 messages. Though survey results show that most people (77%) are not motivated by spam to a visit a web site or make a purchase, 22 percent have at least visited a Web site after being prompted.
Take your Spam Personality Test here.
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