An Average Brit Receives 10 Spam Every Day

The outcome of a new poll by conducted Opinium Research for Moneysupermarket in October 2008 has disclosed that an average Brit receives 10 spam mails per day, 372 per month, either by text or mail.

Nearly 90% of 2,179 adults surveyed do not safeguard themselves from spam by filtering mails, making them accessible to harmful messages. 81% claim that the messages they receive are meaningless, with the most frequent types of spam are sales (35%), pornography (16%) and phishing (27%).

In spite of dislike for spam mails, almost 14% have admitted that they respond to a spam mail. The worst sufferers are under twenties as around 17% responding to spam. Almost 1/4th people believe that spam pose a danger for youngsters and 23% held the view that their ISP should caution them about spam mails.

The research also divulge that e-mail provider should be extra vigilant in cautioning users about dangers of spam like the phishing mails that deceive users into revealing private details like PayPal passwords and eBay passwords. As the internet becomes an integral part of life, the chances for hackers to target users are rising.

Fortunately, a large number of users know the danger of spam and steps of preventing it, with just 20% of users lack knowledge of stopping it. Though, most of the spams are considered meaningless, with the majority of mails are of sales, pornography and phishing, some still contain trojans and virus that can deteriorate files and steal user's details.

Security experts say that users can not do much to restrict the spam mails; they can create a spam filter so that all spam and unsolicited mails go to junk folder. They added that they should have anti-virus program and it should be regularly updated.

Therefore, they advised that eBay, PayPal and bank will never ask for private or online details. These mails are just phishing e-mails for stealing users' details and should not be responded.

Related article: An Internet Hack That Lasted 12 Hours

» SPAMfighter News - 12/1/2008