Think you’ve got a spam problem? Well, Bill Gates gets 4 Million junk emails every day according to Steve Balmer. Check out the story here.
As an “email professional” I deal with spam every day. Usually from the point of view that yourinternet provider thinks that my email is spam. Actually, Tony does all of the hard work negotiating with ISPs and such … I just think about it a lot. And try to come up with subject lines that avoid the words “FREE” and “CIALIS.” The former is pretty hard, the latter is, too, but doesn’t ever come up. (Two puns in one sentence … aren’t ya proud of me?)
If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that there’s not a good solution for proving that you asked for my email. (In our case, you probably paid for it!) And there’s not a good system for blocking the unwanted stuff either. Something has to be done … but let me tell ya, filtering ain’t it. Spammers are a lot smarter than any filter. The result is that plenty of email you actually wanted gets caught in the crossfire. How many times have you sent someone an important note and they swore up and down they never got it? Chances are pretty good it got kicked out by a spam filter.
In the meantime, I’ve turned my filters off. Every ISP still filters before it ever gets to the mailbox, but it’s a start. I’ve become very tolerant. And you know what? The delete key isn’t that hard to master. Once you get the hang of it, it’s really quick and effective … and I don’t lose nearly as many emails.
Of course, I also don’t get 4 Million of these scams a day, either.
