Marshal - 29% of Internet Surfers Buy Products from Spam

According to a recent survey conducted by security firm Marshal, as many as 29% of Internet users reported that they had bought a product promoted by spam.

Usually, people who purchase once are likely to purchase again, as Marshal's survey proves that spam shoppers begin to like this kind of purchasing. The products that Internet users most commonly obtain through the illegally advertised websites are items that boost ones romantic life as well as fake luxury goods such as clothing, jewelry and watches.

Bradley Anstis, Vice President of Products, Marshal, states that it is commonly believe that the regular online shoppers do not purchase from spam. But the kind of items people buy shows popularity of products usually bought online, as reported by smartcompany on February 23, 2009.

Security experts further state that the reason for such a large number of people purchasing from spam relates to the convenience as well as the extent of anonymity Internet provides to people looking for restricted or illegal goods. Additionally, spam has taken the form of a mainstream source for promoting counterfeit or restricted products in the light of high demand from Internet users.

In the meantime, security specialists also stated that it was evident from the Marshal survey that a large number of people were doing spam shopping, making the business profitable and worthwhile for spammers, in spite of the usual notion that spam does not attract very high responses.

The figures point out that often fewer than 10 purchases are carried out per one million spam mails sent. It is also worth noting that a majority of these e-mails gets trapped in spam filters, indicating that there is actually a high response rate if one considers only those spam mails that reach a user's inbox.

Furthermore, Marshal claims that an estimate of around 150 Billion spam mails is pushed out daily. The reason why the number is so large is that spammers find it easy to get responses from potential purchasers by dispatching huge volumes of messages to everyone.

Related article: Marshal Identifies Six Botnets Spamming 85% of World Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 3/6/2009