A press release from e-mail security company Sophos warning people not to respond to an e-mail offering Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code claimed that 9% of computer users have bought goods sold via spam.
The 9% figure—that’s practically one out of 10 people—is a bunch of hooey. For one thing, if that many people actually were buying from spam, we’d be well advised to rethink the idea that it should be eradicated. After all, 9% of the population making purchases represents serious economic activity.
The problem with spam is precisely the opposite. It requires a minuscule response to make it worth the sender’s while.
The only way any survey could accurately determine what percentage of computer users have purchased as a result of spam e-mail would be if the senders were doing the tracking.
It is common knowledge that consumers sign up for offers and lists and forget about them all the time. As a result, they label anything that comes in unexpectedly as spam. So asking people if they’ve purchased from spam in a survey is a waste of everyone’s time. It tells us nothing.
