byteblog

No, not the strange processed meat that comes in tins and seems to be enjoying a revival, but its namesake, the ubiquitous emails that swamp our inboxes on a daily basis.

According to an experiment by McAfee the software security and backup company, the average email user would get around 70 spam messages a day if it went unchecked. One user apparently received 5,414 spam message in a one month period.

I have that beat. Looking at my spam box, in the past month I have received 6,254 junk emails, ranging from very generous offers of cash from previously unknown dead relatives, to offers of a very generous male appendage, all the way to genuine Rollex (sic) timepieces for only £2.50.

Don’t get me wrong, the internet and email are great tools, but as long as they are around and are free at the point of use, some people will take advantage of that and send out billions of these things every day.

A simple solution? Charge to send emails. I would quite happily pay a few pence to send a genuine email, in much the same way as I’m happy to buy a stamp to post a letter.

Although saying that, looking at the post this morning has revealed that even charging for sending something doesn’t necessarily stop spam coming through my letterbox. Oh well, it was just a thought….

Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7482991.stm