Digital + Social

America Online blocked an average of 1.5 billion spam e-mails a day last year for a total of 556 billion in 2005, the company announced yesterday.

As New York City workers and residents grappled with the devastating effects of the city’s transit workers’ strike for a second day Wednesday, at least one company incorporated commuters’ frustration into a personalized e-mail holiday sales pitch.

Online privacy seal concern TRUSTe announced this week that Yesmail will become the first company to resell TRUSTe web privacy seals.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper filed suit last week against a man Cooper alleges sent hundreds of illegal e-mails falsely claiming his product would increase fuel efficiency.

Spam accounted for 68% of all email traffic in 2005, according to e-mail security firm MX Logic Inc. This compares to 77% in 2004. Peaking at 78% in November, spam dropped to its lowest volume, 60%, in May, according to MX Logic.

Despite some troubling developments in e-mail since the Can-Spam Act of 2003 went into effect two years ago, the often-derided federal law has resulted in marketers adopting more best practices and helped law enforcement go after spammers, the Federal Trade Commission said in a report to Congress released Tuesday.

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist last week said he won a permanent injunction against two men he alleged violated federal and Florida law with their e-mail marketing operation.

The same Sophos