Unsolicited commercial email (UCE) costs the sender very little yet consumes time and resources for both Internet Service Providers and their customers. It has been estimated that last year UCE potentially cost American companies $8.9 billion in lost productivity, bandwidth consumption, technical support and other technical resources [Ferris Research, 2003].
A security flaw in Microsoft's Hotmail system is allowing spammers to
send forged bulk email using Hotmail's own servers. Microsoft has
put restrictions on outbound email volume to try and reduce the
impact of the problem, but no long-term fix has been announced.
A new anti-spam bill requiring spammers to use legitimate return
addresses and honor unsubscribe requests is making its way through
the U.S. Senate. If passed the bill would require the states to sue
non-compliant spammers.
The FTC estimates that two-thirds of all spam offers are false or
misleading. When it comes to investment advice and business
opportunities the percentage jumps to 96%.
