E-Mail users are getting used to spam

A study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project says that users are getting used to e-mail spam although such unwanted e-mails are still perceived as very annoying. 22 percent of the people in the survey said that they spend less time on e-mail because of spam.

Over the years, the content of junk email has changed. From pornographic advertisement, it has become “phishing”, an elaborate way of deceiving users to give up their passwords by pretending to be a respectable institution.

A lot of users also came up with their own way to fight spam, like setting up a special account that they use to subscribe to websites online. If you own a website, a contact form instead of an email address can help avoid spam.

I recently noticed that more and more people are using spamarrest, a service that put itself between your mailbox and the senders. When someone tries to send an email to you protected mailbox, spamarrest will ask the sender for a confirmation before relaying the email to your inbox. It’s a good way of avoiding junk mail sent by automated robots. It’s a paid service, but there’s a 30 days trial.