Spam Levels Part One

Ever wonder why some people get so much spam? Better yet, ever wonder why your Internet Service Provider can’t stop more of it? Well, despite valiant and ongoing efforts by various software companies spammers are getting more and more difficult to predict. Furthermore, their methods are getting more and more sophisticated. So much that sometimes you even get spam from yourself! What?

In the early days of the internet, the amount of spam your received was directly proportional to the number of internet sites you entered your email address into. In other words, if you didn’t enter your email address for some contest or club you likely received very little spam. You could say your “spam level” was fairly low. Then the internet became slightly more sophisticated and sites began obtaining your email address directly from your web browsing software like Netscape or Internet Explorer. Of course, if you chose not to enter that information into your browser configuration it would not be available.

However, most people do enter that information, consequently making their email address available to millions of people, including

spammers. Nowadays, spam levels are directly proportional to nothing. It seems no matter how much or little information you provide about yourself online, spam levels are ever-increasing. I receive over 200 spam per day which is up from about 5 per day 5 years ago. That’s almost a 1000% increase each year! What will spam levels be like 5 years from now? At that growth rate I’m looking at approximately 8000 spam per day!

So, what do you do about spam levels? Who knows? Buy some anti-spam software. Set up hundreds of filters in your email program. Hire a monkey to keep deleting your mail as it arrives. The best advise is to clear your personal information out of your browser configuration, arm yourself with your virtual Excalibur (mouse) and hack through it like the rest of us. I’m certain a solution to spam will come about, however I suspect it won’t be for sometime yet. Spammers are getting way too smart.