Marshal: Spam sells

Ever wondered why the volume of spam continues to rise? Because, it seems, people are actually buying from them. Security company Marshal asked consumers what purchases they’d made from spam and a surprising number of people confessed.

by Helen Leggatt

Over 150 billion spam messages hit inboxes every single day, accounting for around 85% of email. That figure continues to rise, despite more awareness of the problems associated with the senders, products and security.

Why? Because people really are buying from spam emails. Over 29% of respondents to a Marshal survey confessed to having made a purchase from a spam email. Four years ago, Forrester Research conducted a similar poll and discovered that 20% had made purchases from spam, so the number appears to be rising.

“The poll highlights an inconvenient truth,” said Michael Whitehurst, Marshal’s Vice-President of Global Support. “Many of us often question ourselves, why is there so much spam? The answer is enough people are purchasing products from spam to make it a worthwhile and profitable endeavor for spammers.”

Profitable, indeed. It is estimated that it costs a spammer as little as $5 per million email addresses making even a few sales worth their while, in most cases.