What Is The Real Cost of Spam? 316
securitas writes "The NY Times has a nice feature about the diverging estimates of the costs of spam (Google). The estimates vary widely from $10 billion to $87 billion per year for American workers, and even more for global costs. Critics say that research firms' estimates vastly overstate the actual cost of spam. Public institutions like Indiana University have to be sensitive to the First Amendment rights of the spammers. And at companies like Nortel Networks, security architect Chris Lewis says that the real economic burden is the 10 to 15 percent - 5,000 to 10,000 messages a day - of the spam that still gets through, which costs the company about $1 in lost productivity per message. The costs can be much higher if a top executive is upset or mad about spam. "If someone in senior management gets spammed," Mr. Lewis said, "it could take 20 or 30 hours of everyone's time, up and down the chain." A chart of the per user amount of spam and the time spent processing it, as well as the varying estimates of the per user cost of spam are included in the article."
About... (Score:0, Funny)
PHB Gets Spammed (Score:5, Funny)
Well, yes, since the CEO needs to ask his assistant to ask a senior manager to ask the Spam Control Committee to ask a freshly-hired sysadmin to fucking hit his goddamn delete key. All that and more for just $50 million a year, plus golden parachute!
A dollar a message (Score:5, Funny)
Where can I find a job where I get paid $1 every time I press the delete button? I'll fax in my resume' right away!
Spam (Score:2, Funny)
It's cost me a lot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:spambayes (Score:2, Funny)
Shush!! That's not what it costs!! That's just what you tell the lawyers it costs!
Obviously it just takes under a second to decide to delete it and press the `delete` key, plus however long Outlook feels like taking, to actually delete it.
Re:A dollar a message (Score:5, Funny)
Well, in my dreams that'd be the job description for a vacancy at the Patent Office but I don't see that particular dream coming true any time soon.
The real cost of spam is.... (Score:1, Funny)
I expect lots of mod's down for overrated... come on people, dont' hold back!
Re: Jacuzzi Jet (Score:1, Funny)
The cost: hours and hours of experimentation.
Re: Jacuzzi Jet (Score:4, Funny)
Wow. Marriage sure has changed you, CmdrTaco!
Re:A dollar a message (Score:3, Funny)
On the off chance you were not being sarcastic (Score:2, Funny)
From: John Smith
Subject: V*I*A*G*R*A
To: CEO
From: Your Buddy
Subject: Are you feeling a little less than you could be?
Now let's take a poll. How long wold it take for most of you to figure out this is Spam? How many of you would approach the 10 second mark for deleting both of these? If you are, then you have a slow trigger finger.
To find out how much spam costs... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Where the dollars are... (Score:3, Funny)
Not to mention those public e-mail addresses on websites... "support@mycompany.com" that are just absolutely drowned with spam.
Don't forget that, thanks to email worms, there's really no such thing as a "private" email address anymore. If you forwarded an email to a friend, who forwarded to a friend, ad nauseum any one of those people in the trail not only has the address, but might also unwillingly pass it on to others if infected with an email worm.
The problem here is that an email address is basically like giving out a master key to your house, just so someone can drop off a note. There's no authentication inherent in the specifications.
This is why I think that all sub-standard open source mail servers should be outlawed in favor of Exchange 2000, which in coordination with Active Directory is the only messaging solution which supports a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) whereby sources of email can be authenticated by the sender's trusted certificate, and if necessary blocked.
Re:A dollar a message (Score:4, Funny)
>> that "v1agra no prescr1ption needed" is spam
Maybe it doesn't take you, but it takes me about 120 to make sure that isn't MY viagra supplier.
Re:Senior management, ugh (Score:1, Funny)
Your job is to do what the fuck you are told. If you honestly think your half-assed "broke/fix it" troubleshooting technique is worth even a dollar more than you're already making, you are sadly deluded. Frankly, we could buy about 10 anti-spam software solutions with the money we waste paying you to sit in your chair cruising slashdot.org on company time while smelling your own farts. The only thing that's keeping us from firing you and replacing you with a fresh-faced new and shiny space monkey MCSE from the community college is that you might be able to collect unemployment from us, unless you give us a good reason to fire you for insubordination. Keep it up, jerk-ass.
-Your Boss
The art of vast overestimation (Score:2, Funny)
Researchers: Hey, your company only makes $10 million net per year. How the hell are you claiming $1 billion in lost profit due to spam?
Company: Wha?? Look at the monkey! Look at the silly monkey...
Researchers: Oh, I see. $1 billion it is.
What is the real cost of Spam? (Score:4, Funny)
Next question?
Re:A dollar a message (Score:2, Funny)
90% or more of my spam is identified just by reading the subject and the senders address
i don't think someone payd $60/hr is working at a computer that has over 30 seconds to open a message =)))
one look at the message disqualifes the other ~8% of the spam
before i start reading a message i go over it just looking for the topic and who was writing this message
if this takes someone over 30 seconds you should reconsider his wage (especially if it's over 60$/hr)
I think we can all agree (Score:1, Funny)
They would do worse things to their anus then Kobe did to Kaitlyn Faber.
Do not delete "spam" email. (Score:5, Funny)
The evasion of commercial email is a serious ethical, moral, and legal issue. Users caught implementing "filters" to evade their responsibilities could face an expensive lawsuit or even jail time.
We as a society must learn to respect the copyrights and first amendment rights of bulk emailers, many of whom struggle to put food on the table for their families. To summarize:
1. Commercial email deletion is a serious moral and legal issue.
2. "Everyone does it" or "I didn't know it was illegal to filter spam" are not valid excuses.
3. Filter users could face an expensive lawsuit or even jail time. To avoid this threat, just delete all spam filtering software you may have installed on your computer.
4. We will not rest until this insidious form of electronic shoplifting is eradicated for good.
Snappy comebacks (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's cost me a lot (Score:3, Funny)
'Cause I was first. (in this post).
and yet every time there is a spam story one of these jokes gets modded +5 funny?
It's funny when people make fun of their dicks. People like dick jokes.
Dicks are inherently funny. They look funny, they act funny, and they are fun to play with.
Your dick is your helmet (or sweater, depending on your religion) wearing friend.
Cost (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A dollar a message (Score:5, Funny)
That would be the job of the person receiving your resumes.
Lost Productivity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Real costs (Score:4, Funny)