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Spam is something that we pretty much all deal with, most of us on a daily basis. I've somehow been fortunate at work to hardly ever get any there, and for several years I was able to keep my 1122productions email address virtually spam-free. I managed that by having a free Yahoo email address that I used as the one I gave out to websites that required me to put in an email address. I've had my 1122 email address since midway through college, and it's only been in the last year or so that I've been getting tons of spam.
I have a really good spam filter, so I don't see a lot of it. But just for fun, the last couple of days, I've tracked what kinds of spam I get. I figured this might serve as sort of a snapshot to see what's important or popular enough right now for me to be annoyed by. The results surprised me a little bit...I know these numbers would probably be different if taken under a different time period, but I never claimed this was scientific.
Here's what I found (percentages are rounded):
Easy money (including the same exact email about stuffing envelopes like 10 times): 19%
Prescription drugs: 18%
Credit cards: 8%
Weight loss: 8%
Look younger: 8%
Mortages: 7%
Misc products: 7%
Ummm....let's just say, "enhancement": 6%
Misc services: 5%
Debt elimination: 4%
Computer products: 3%
Porn: 2%
Dating: 2%
So there you have it. I think the focus of the spammers is changing, as not too long ago everyone always complained that all of the spam they got was for porn. It actually tied for last place here...the fact that easy money was #1 was not a surprise to me, but prescription drugs coming in at #2 was a surprise. I'm still amazed that credit cards weighed so high...I mean really, has anybody ever been dumb enough to sign up for a credit card offer you got through spam? One that could have been sent to you by anyone in the world, and the page you're filling out with all of your important information (including social security number) may or may not be from an actual credit card company? It amazes me that some people probably do, or otherwise it would not be worth the spammers time to send out such offers. Given human nature, I can kind of see that they might be drawn in by promises of easy money or cheaper/illegal prescription drugs, but anyone who would just randomly decide to get a new credit card based on an unsolicited email they received is just plain dumb.