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December 10, 2004
Furtive shopping frenzy
A new report from Forrester research (on behalf of the Business Software Alliance) provides some surprising data on the effectiveness of spam. The survey of 1,000 worldwide Internet users found that over 40% of Americans surveyed had purchsed something via spam, while 44% of Britons had bought from spammers.
Brazil, a haven for lots of spam-hosting companies, is also apparently home to some of the most receptive spam recipients. Researchers discovered that 66% of Brazilians surveyed had bought something in response to junk email.
The most popular items purchased via spam: software, clothes/jewelry, and leisure/travel.
As I observe in the epilogue to Spam Kings, the root of the spam problem isn't legislative or technological. It's human. In particular, it's the humans who buy from spammers.
Posted by brian at December 10, 2004 7:38 AM
