Survey Finds Nearly 50% of Users Open Spam E-mails

Based on a latest survey conducted by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) on March 24, it has been found that in spite of the users' knowledge of how viruses and bots circulate via risky e-mail activities, a significant proportion of users still face spam. North America and Western Europe were covered in the survey.

This online survey of over 3,000 e-mail users took place from January 8-10, 2010. The survey found out that almost 50% of e-mail users confess of opening a spam e-mail, and few clicked on an attachment or a link, or forwarded them to people in their address book.

Albeit over 80% of e-mail users know that the bots exist, tens of millions reply to spam in a manner that they could become exposed to malware bug. While most candidates who were surveyed told about their awareness on the existence of bots, just one-third said that they think they're susceptible to a malware infection.

Respondents who've opened up spam intentionally are 46% as per the survey. Now, of these 46%, 25% opened it so as to file a complaint or to unsubscribe, 18% users just wanted to experience the consequences of opening up a spam, and 15% respondents did it because of their fascination towards the product.

Overall, 11% clicked a spam link, 8% opened the attachments, 4% forwarded to others, and 4% responded to spam.

Most users generally do not indicate or report fraudulent e-mail or spam. The younger users generally believe themselves to be more experienced and skilled regarding e-mail security. However, this is the group which most likely being involved in performing risky activities, like clicking on or opening spam.

Vis-à-vis the results obtained by the survey, MAAWG chairman, Michael O'Reirdan, said that the Web users must understand that they are not incapable spectators. By marking the e-mails they receive as junk, and hence not engaging in spam, consumers can play a major role in the fight against spammers, as per the news published by MAAWG on March 24, 2010.

He added that by responding to spam, users often end up being a victim of a fraud and their systems being compromised by Internet fraudsters who spread viruses, distribute more spam, and launch cyber attacks using them.

Related article: Survey Finds 96% Zombie PCs in Malaysia

» SPAMfighter News - 4/2/2010