The State of Spam in 2012: and what you can do about it

Over the years, spam has evolved from consisting of annoying but otherwise harmless advertisements, to becoming a carrier of viruses and malware that can damage your computer and make you vulnerable to identity theft (a.k.a. “phising”).

Email marketing services are very aware that even today, despite major developments in the area of anti-spam software and measures such as filters, blocks and blacklists for bad senders; the negative effects of spam are still being felt by individuals and businesses alike.

How spam affects your bottom line

Spam is more than just a minor rash. According to a study by the Radicati Research Group, spam costs businesses $20.5 billion annually in decreased productivity as well as in technical expenses. Nucleus Research estimates that the average loss per employee annually due to spam is about $1934.

Predictions for the future costs of spam don’t look any brighter. It is estimated that 58 billion junk emails will be sent every day within the next four years, a figure that will balloon to cost businesses some $198 billion annually, if spam continues to flourish at its current rate.

With billions of dollars being poured into dealing with the Spam problem, many governments have stepped up to the plate to address the issue by passing anti-spam laws and enacting directives to help prevent the issue.

What you can do about spam

There are some steps that anyone can take to reduce the amount of junk emails making it to the inbox, both for themselves and for others.

While users may be in the habit of using various preventive or removal techniques that are available for dealing with spam, they should take the responsibility to report spam so that those behind it can be better identified, and eventually stopped.

There have been many instances when authorities have caught and penalized spammers, making them compensate users for the damages wrought on computer systems. Though it might take some time for the benefits to emerge, reporting spam is the best thing that anyone can do the help curb it in the long run, and help better differentiate legitimate email marketing campaigns from spam.

Shaun Swanepoel, Systems Administrator for GraphicMail says: “Unfortunately, we will never be totally rid of junk email. With that said we can all contribute by reporting spam and protect ourselves by using up-to-date anti-spam software.”

Article originally published on Memeburn.