ISPs losing battle against spam

A third of US households using the internet have said that as much as three quarters of their email is spam.

According to a survey by Gartner, the effort and expense that ISPs are devoting to anti-spam measures are failing to stem the rising tide of unwanted email.

"Consumer concern about spam is a significant factor in their choice of an ISP," said Betsy Burton, research vice president for Gartner, in a statement.

Burton said that if another ISP could do a better job of stopping spam at the same price as their current ISP, 11 per cent of online households would switch ISPs.

Another 42 per cent indicated that they would be more likely to switch than not.

The analyst warned that enterprises using email marketing or list management for mass mailings are often viewed as spammers when they send emails which are not solicited by recipients.

See also:

Spammers consider UK a soft touch

'Derisory sanctions' of European e-privacy law has made spam problem worse, warn experts  11 Jun 2004

MSN Search claims to freeze out web spam

Microsoft unveils its forthcoming attempt to dethrone Google  11 Jun 2004

Firms won't pay extra for spam filters

Few European companies willing to pay more to their ISPs for protection  09 Jun 2004

Microsoft readies spam-beating technology

Planned authentication system will put burden of proof on the spammer  04 Jun 2004

ITU to hold spam summit

Telcos and ISPs invited to tackle growing menace of junk email  04 Jun 2004

Zombie PCs generate 80 per cent of spam

Majority of junk mail coming from home PCs infected with spam Trojans  03 Jun 2004

Junk mail

The term 'spam' may have been popularised by a Monty Python sketch but, in the electronic world, junk mail is far from a laughing matter.  06 Jun 2003

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