Spammed for the Holidays
Page 1 of 4
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November 27, 2002
Spammed for the
Holidays
By Beth Cox
It's the holidays, which
means no rest for
weary retailers -- or
for consumers deluged
by spam. In fact, the
holidays could actually
prompt an increase in
unwanted commercial
e-mail, according to
several anti-spam
operations.
David Strickler,
founder of e -mail
protection company
MailWise, said the
holiday season could
result in a surge that
could make spam up
to 90 percent of all
Internet e-mail, as
anxious retailers
bolster their efforts to
boost holiday sales.
New MailWise data
indicates that while
spam normally
accounts for
approximately 60
percent of all Internet
e-mail traffic, a 20 to
30 increase in spam
Get Ready for Blast Off
By Alan Meckler
History is about to repeat itself with
a technology that will re-vitalize the
industry.
Webcasting Royalties | Linux | ICANN | Online
Trading | Video-on-demand | Server Blades |
Spam | 802.11 | Instant Messaging | Internet
Protocol | Pay-for-Placement Search |
HP/Compaq | Hacking | 9/11
•November 2002 Security Space Survey Results
•Internet Abuse Drains Time and Money
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12/5/2002
Spammed for the Holidays
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DJ 30
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S&P 500
8719.68 -18.17
1432.50
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10:05 AM
Market data delayed a minimum
of 15 minutes
can be expected
between Thanksgiving
and Christmas, he
said.
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•November 2002 Netcraft Survey Highlights
•Get Ready, Get Set, Shop!
•Healthy Revenue Picture for VPN/Firewall, IDS
Markets
Other filtering
companies estimate the volume of spam at 30 percent to 50 percent, but
regardless of the specific figure, it certainly has been on the rise. San
Francisco-based Brightmail, for instance, has seen spam on its customer
networks increase from 8 percent of mail to 41 percent over the past 14
months.
Brightmail, which markets an integrated suite of anti-spam software and
services, reported more than 5.3 million unique spam attacks in October
of 2002.
"... we have seen seasonal increases in unsolicited e-mail at gift-giving
holidays throughout the year," Frangois Lavaste, Brightmail's vice
president of marketing, told internetnews.com. "Given the economic
climate at the moment and the low cost of e-mail, we expect to see
holiday e -mail marketing, including unsolicited offers, spike in December.
However, spam filtering companies need to be careful not to block
legitimate holiday offers and holiday greetings from parties with whom
consumers have an established relationship."
According to Strickler, retailers counting on holiday spending to salvage
lackluster 2002 revenues are set to bombard consumers with holiday ads
through all mediums, including e -mail.
"This year's twist on the holiday ad deluge will be spam, and much of it
will be directed at consumers' corporate inboxes," he said. "The surge in
e-mail traffic could potentially cripple corporate computing systems, cut
employee productivity, and cost companies millions of dollars each
month."
Boston-based MailWise markets a spam and virus filtering solution on an
ASP basis.
Not everyone agrees that the holidays equate with an uptick in spam,
however.
"Spam doesn't follow the rational economics of the paper world, where
marketers spend big to mail more catalogs in the seasons when people
are buying more," said Jason Catlett, founder of Junkbusters.com.
"Because spammers pay almost nothing to send their junk, they just do it
whenever they can.
"Legitimate marketers almost never spam, and the holiday season is not
especially correlated with their occasional foolish lapses. Of course spam is
still growing at its usual intolerably high rate, so we will likely get a
increase before, during, and after the holiday period."
Internet News
Internet Investing
Internet Technology
Windows Internet Tech.
The experts say spam e-mail marketing has low response rates, often less
than half a percent, but is extremely cheap, which explains why it is so
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12/5/2002
Spammed for the Holidays
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Page 3 of 4
prevalent.
Spam, of course, has spawned a small industry of counter-spam
companies, and free stop-spam applications also abound -- just do a
Google search.
One of the newest freebies comes from Internet technologies company
KMGI in New York, which has released free software called "Eliminate
Spam!" that it claims can ban any sender with a single click.
KMGI said it plans to distribute 20 million copies of the freeware version of
Eliminate Spam! by the end of 2003 and intends to recoup the investment
by offering multi-user licensing to corporate users.
And if you're just plain fed up with it all, you can send your spam to
[email protected]. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission uses the unsolicited e mails stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against
people who send deceptive spam e-mail.
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http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/1549241
12/5/2002