Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

While on vacation I decided to run a small experiment. Of my various emailboxes, one has no filters on it whatsoever. I was curious: How bad has the spam situation really become? So I left the emailbox wide open and didn't check it for two weeks. Just now I cautiously lifted the lid.

Result: during 14 days of being left to itself, the emailbox accumulated over 28,000 messages. It's a turbulent and vicious cyberworld out there! Mean streets indeed.

A question for those who know math and computers? Can we justifiably conclude from my amateur experiment that these days, a typical emailbox, if left entirely wide-open, would be stuffed on average with 2000 spams a day?

Counting work, I seem to have become the proprietor of five emailboxes. No, make that six. Er, seven. How'd that happen anyway? How many emailboxes have you got piled up?

Best,

Michael

Afaik, there is a significant correlation between the availability of your email address on the net and the amount of spam you get (which is why you see "Joe (at) dotcom [dot] edu" to foil the computers) I would assume the amount of time you've had your email box matters as well.

But you're right: the spammers have won. I see 50 or so spam for every legitimate email. If it wasn't for the Bayesian filters, we'd be done.

Posted by: cure on November 27, 2005 1:05 PM

My primary email account has dreadful quantities of spam for someone who has four other email accounts she uses to sign up for almost anything.

I remember someone telling me about the harvesting of email addys that happens when you wind up on a gargantuan cc list; my primary email addy unfortunately winds up on lots of cc lists b/c I know so many actors, who are always inviting their entire address book to whatever show they're in.

More importantly, how on earth are you getting two weeks of vacation! I thought that had gone the way of pensions and gold watches.

Posted by: communicatrix on November 27, 2005 2:57 PM

Colleen, 2 is merely a fraction of the actual number of weeks; I suppose that's a mercy present you get for unrequited love of French actresses...

Posted by: Tatyana on November 27, 2005 5:00 PM

I've had the same primary email address for years and it receives a lot of spam. Nonetheless the address remains useful, because the ISP's filter works well enough, and (I suspect) because I don't publish my address on any web sites and I try to keep it off giant CC lists (by not forwarding jokes, for example).

Posted by: Jonathan on November 28, 2005 1:23 AM

Six e-mail addresses, each with a specific purpose:
1) Blogging
2) Internet purchasing (also have one credit card devoted just to that. Beats sieving the transactions to see which were bricks 'n mortar and which were on-line.
3) Business
4) Close friends
5) Reminder/To do/ pseudo-schedule/birthday & anniversary list (Yeah, I still use a trusty 5 year old Palm Pilot, but I need a LOT of reminding)
6) Spare

Posted by: DarkoV on November 28, 2005 9:53 AM

Don't forget the e-mail address we all have for our darker, more adult pursuits!

Posted by: hunter on November 28, 2005 3:14 PM

I killed my favorite address that I'd had for 8 years last summer because it was getting several hundred spam messages a day. It was just too much of a hassle. I still have 7 addresses though I only check 2 daily.

http://www.bugmenot.com/
is helpful for logging into sites that require registration without using any of your own personal info.

Posted by: claire on November 28, 2005 5:28 PM

MY that's depressing.
I went off and neglected one of my email accounts for about 15 days last month and had 200 junk mails to delete.

Posted by: Michael Tinkler on November 28, 2005 5:45 PM

I am a Nigerian nobleman of the highest class, and I am writing to you because I feel I can trust you. And if you help me out, I will show my gratitude by sharing an immense sum ...

Sorry, Michael. Couldn't stop myself.

Posted by: Rick Darby on November 29, 2005 3:25 PM






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