America's turning off email over spam fears: survey

The recent explosion of email spam is beginning to take its toll on the Internet world, according to a nationwide US survey.

The report, entitled “Spam: Hurting email and degrading the Internet environment,” by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found that 25% of America’s email users say they are using email less because of spam. Within that group, most say that spam has reduced their overall use of email in a big way.

More than half of email users say that spam has made them "less trusting of email in general". One of their fears is that legitimate emails might be turned away by filters designed to stop spam. Another is that they will simply miss incoming email from friends, family, or colleagues amid the clutter of spam in their inboxes.

“People just love email, and it really bothers them that spam is ruining such a good thing,” said Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Internet & American Life Project and author of the report.

“People resent spam intrusions – they are angered by its deceptions, and they are offended by much of the truly disgusting content.”

The most popular way of dealing with spam is to simply click “delete”, but more than 2/3 have made a more aggressive move, clicking to “remove me” from future mailings, although many voiced concern that doing so only leads to more spam.

“The general findings are striking, but inside the data are even more disturbing details about the reactions women and parents have with pornographic spam,” said Fallows. “Pornographers deserve a special place in hell as far as they are concerned.”

(gmcg)