If you have been noticing it without being sure, here is an official confirmation. Yes, spam, the menace that clogs up your inbox, is on the decline.
Last year, spam mails declined by about 8.2%, according to security firm Kaspersky. The decline is in line with a trend that started in 2010.
There are many reasons for this. First the spam filters in your email have become smarter. They usually succeed in stopping spam 98% of the time. Over the last two years authorities in different countries have shut down botnet command centres and pharmaceutical affiliate programmes, which were major sources of spam. Service providers now vigorously verify the digital signatures of the domain from which emails are sent, making sending spam more difficult.
Perhaps, more importantly, spam is losing its economic rationale. It costs money to send spam. As you are likely to delete these emails without even opening, to get a good response spammers have to target millions of inboxes. The larger the number of recipients they target, the more expensive it gets.
With legal advertisements offering better ways to target right segments of customers at more attractive rates, many erstwhile spammers are now going legit. Kaspersky has worked out the economics of spamming. According to it the average price of sending spam is $150 (Rs 8,058) per million emails. Given the low rate of clicks, it costs a minimum of $.4.45 (Rs 239) to get a user to follow the link. In other words, advertising on Facebook is cheaper.
Many fly-by-night businesses, which traditionally relied on spam, such as fake luxury goods are now switching over to social networks. The IP of a few online stores, which are advertising on Facebook, were previously using spam, notes Kaspersky.
Last year, spam mails declined by about 8.2%, according to security firm Kaspersky. The decline is in line with a trend that started in 2010.
There are many reasons for this. First the spam filters in your email have become smarter. They usually succeed in stopping spam 98% of the time. Over the last two years authorities in different countries have shut down botnet command centres and pharmaceutical affiliate programmes, which were major sources of spam. Service providers now vigorously verify the digital signatures of the domain from which emails are sent, making sending spam more difficult.
Perhaps, more importantly, spam is losing its economic rationale. It costs money to send spam. As you are likely to delete these emails without even opening, to get a good response spammers have to target millions of inboxes. The larger the number of recipients they target, the more expensive it gets.
With legal advertisements offering better ways to target right segments of customers at more attractive rates, many erstwhile spammers are now going legit. Kaspersky has worked out the economics of spamming. According to it the average price of sending spam is $150 (Rs 8,058) per million emails. Given the low rate of clicks, it costs a minimum of $.4.45 (Rs 239) to get a user to follow the link. In other words, advertising on Facebook is cheaper.
Many fly-by-night businesses, which traditionally relied on spam, such as fake luxury goods are now switching over to social networks. The IP of a few online stores, which are advertising on Facebook, were previously using spam, notes Kaspersky.