Email Spam Rates Dipping to All-time Low

We all hate it, yet we never seem to quite rid ourselves of it: spam. It fills our inboxes and drives us up the walls. Contrary to popular belief, though, overall email spamming has been on a downward trend. In fact, it has dropped below 50 percent for the first time in a decade.

Symantec, the renowned security firm, has been tracking the total amount of emails and comparing it to the amount of these emails represented by spam mail. It was back in 2003 when inboxes saw this little spam, so it seems that we’re heading to a better tomorrow. According to the Symantec Intelligence Report for last month, overall email spam rates have reached 49.7 percent.

The massive security form analyzed over 704 billion email messages sent in June alone and concluded that only 353 billion could be classified as spam mail. When comparing this data to other periods, such as the same month of 2009, we might very well breathe a sigh of relief: back then, out of the 6.3 trillion sent email messages, 5.7 trillion were spam, according to the same security company.

And experts believe that spam messages will continue to drop.

Topping the list of most spammy industry was the mining industry (if you can believe it!) with 56 percent. In fact, it succeeded in topping its May performance of 55 percent. Other spam messages, such as getting together with Nigerian princes, enlarging certain body parts or dropping 10 pounds in 1 day may still appear in your inbox, however, less than before. Manufacturing, construction and retail came in close second, third and fourth after mining with 54, 53 and 52 percent, alongside other fields such as public administration, insurance, finance or real-estate.

The question on everyone’s mind though: why is this decline of spam occurring? One possible explanation may lie with the increased legal prosecution against companies using botnets. However, internet providers and blocking software have also become more astute in shielding internet users from unwanted emails and it seems that it’s working.

Google has also been working towards a more spam-free internet environment. Only last week, it introduced its Postmaster Tools, allowing high-volume senders to analyze their outgoing mail including spam reports, reputation and delivery errors.

Symantec’s Intelligence Report also revealed other information pertaining to internet safety, including data on malware variants and their increased creation (57.6 million new variants were created in June alone, as compared to 44 million in May and 29 million in April).
Photo credits: Spectrum

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Alan O’Leary

Alan is a happily-married, New York-based writer with over 5 years of experience in journalism. He mainly focuses on subjects such as international politics, arts culture, social media and national news.