I read once that direct-mail companies consider a 3 percent response rate to be a success. If so, then spammers enjoy even greater success, based on a new
survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
According to the research firm's latest data, 4 percent of email users in the United States say they've ordered products touted in unsolicited emails. I don't know about you, but I can live with that level of gullibility in our society.
Other highlights of the phone survey of 2,200 American adults:
37 percent say they're getting more spam in their personal email
10 percent say they're getting less personal email spam
51 percent haven't noticed a change in personal email spam
29 percent say they're getting more spam in their work accounts
8 percent say they're getting less spam at work
55 percent haven't noticed a change in work spam
Interestingly, even though roughly one-third of respondents report increases in spam, the percentage of people who consider spam a big problem has fallen from 25 percent in 2003 to 18 percent now, and the percentage who say it's no problem at all has risen from 16 percent in the earlier survey to 28 percent.
Have we given up or merely adapted? Perhaps neither. The key to understanding these changes may lie in the nature of the spam we're receiving. I speak of porn spam, which respondents indicate is considerably more offensive than email pleas for banking assistance from Nigerian royalty.
Fortunately, porn spam also appears to be less prevalent. Three years ago, 71 percent of Pew survey respondents reported receiving pornographic spam. That number dropped to 63 percent two years ago and 52 percent in the latest survey.
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