We warned last year that spamming porn, in the words of noted First Amendment and adult entertainment attorney J.D. Obenberger, is "urinating in the well we all drink from." This year, porn spam isn't even close to being number one on the spam parade. Filtering company Clearswift says porn spam in April hit its lowest volume since 2003, while financial and pharmaceutical spam are the kings of the unwanted e-mail world.
And the reason? According to Clearswift director of research Alyn Hockey, porn spam just doesn't bring in the best returns for the spammers.
"We've seen no sign of a let up in the amount of spam traffic so it seems quite clear that the legislative efforts of governments around the world are having little effect on the spammers," said Clearswift director of research Alyn Hockey, announcing the April study results. "However, from the dwindling amount of pornographic spam e-mail, it appears that adult products and services are not generating sufficient returns for spammers. Instead, they are switching to more profitable models using stock tips and consumer products as a hook."
So much for those who continue to insist that porn spam somehow provides an overwhelming presence amidst the flood of unwanted e-mail. Clearswift says porn spam has hit its lowest level since it began keeping a spam index in June 2003, when it says porn spam amounted to 22 percent of all spam. Now, in April 2004, porn spam amounted to barely five percent of the month's total spam.
Financial spam rivaled and came close enough to equaling pharmaceutical spam, Clearswift said, with the former amounting to 38 percent (up from 26 percent in March) and the latter falling to 40 percent (down from 57 percent) for April. This, Clearswift said, was the second month in a row that financial spam rose.
Like many, Clearswift is not very enthusiastic about CAN-SPAM, the U.S. anti-spam law which took effect in January but whose opt-out option still lets spammers flood the inboxes even though it criminalizes those who hide the actual origins of the material. But Clearswift also thinks European anti-spam laws, which use opt-in to "insist on prior consent," still fail to make spam a hard crime, with British spam laws "among the worst in the world because they only apply to consumers and not business e-mail accounts."
The company said only Italy and Australia, in their analysis, have anti-spam laws with the real teeth of prior consent and criminal sanctions in hand.
Clearswift's rival, MessageLabs, says over two thirds of the world's e-mail is spam, with e-mail to the U.S., Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and Hong Kong making up over 97 percent of the world's spam volume. And, among that percentage, MessageLabs says, the U.S. is hit the worst: 83 percent of American e-mail is spam, compared to 52 percent in Britain, 41 percent in Germany, 32 percent in Australia, 30 percent in the Netherlands, and 27 percent in Hong Kong.
Mark Sunner, Chief Technology Officer at MessageLabs, commented "The U.S. presents the widest market for spammers in terms of Internet access and adoption of e-mail as a communications tool," said MessageLabs chief technology officer Mark Sunner May 25. "While it currently has the worst global figure at 83 percent, it's only a matter of time until the U.K. falls victim to similar volumes in around six-months time, whilst Asia-Pacific countries will likely see the same impact in 12 months time. When it comes to the Internet, when the U.S. sneezes, the rest of us catch a cold."
