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Story
Story Highlights
⢠Spammers taking advantage of online shoppers
⢠Experts: Spam accounts for nine out of 10 e-mails
⢠Junk mail cost an estimated $17 billion in the U.S. last year
⢠New trick: Sending spam in the form of an image
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NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The holiday season brings festive parties, family gatherings -- and a deluge of spam.
Unsolicited messages, or spam, which account for nine out of 10 e-mails, fill up the inboxes of computer users more than ever at this time of year, experts say.
"Every year we see a seasonal increase around the holiday season. It's just worse than it's ever been before this year," said Daniel Druker, executive vice president of marketing at Postini, a company that provides message security services.
Spammers spew out millions of e-mails. Some hawk pharmaceuticals and sexual aids, others offer hot stock tips.
The unscrupulous commit identity theft by luring unsuspecting recipients into disclosing personal information, while others commit fraud with the lure of phony offers.
The glut of spam can clog business communications systems to the extent that e-mails at the workplace can be held up for hours, if not days, experts say.
"The threat of this is that e-mail becomes no longer productive as a tool, and that is scary because e-mail is ubiquitous. Most businesses could no longer run without it," Druker said.
Spam cost an estimated $17 billion in the United States last year in lost productivity and the expense of measures to fight it, according to San Francisco-based Ferris Research.
Story Highlights
⢠Spammers taking advantage of online shoppers
⢠Experts: Spam accounts for nine out of 10 e-mails
⢠Junk mail cost an estimated $17 billion in the U.S. last year
⢠New trick: Sending spam in the form of an image
Adjust font size:
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The holiday season brings festive parties, family gatherings -- and a deluge of spam.
Unsolicited messages, or spam, which account for nine out of 10 e-mails, fill up the inboxes of computer users more than ever at this time of year, experts say.
"Every year we see a seasonal increase around the holiday season. It's just worse than it's ever been before this year," said Daniel Druker, executive vice president of marketing at Postini, a company that provides message security services.
Spammers spew out millions of e-mails. Some hawk pharmaceuticals and sexual aids, others offer hot stock tips.
The unscrupulous commit identity theft by luring unsuspecting recipients into disclosing personal information, while others commit fraud with the lure of phony offers.
The glut of spam can clog business communications systems to the extent that e-mails at the workplace can be held up for hours, if not days, experts say.
"The threat of this is that e-mail becomes no longer productive as a tool, and that is scary because e-mail is ubiquitous. Most businesses could no longer run without it," Druker said.
Spam cost an estimated $17 billion in the United States last year in lost productivity and the expense of measures to fight it, according to San Francisco-based Ferris Research.
