Getting Tough on Spam?

Article prepared for the Journal of Database Marketing & Consumer Strategy Management

Abstract

Recent estimates suggest that spam now accounts for as much as 60% of all global email traffic¹, a statistic all too evident to most email users. The content of such emails ranges from unwanted business advertisements to attempts at downright fraud. A recent example at the latter end of the scale purported to be from the lawyers of the late Sir Dennis Thatcher, and sought to dupe recipients into thinking they would receive just shy of a million pounds on providing identification information needed under UK inheritance law². This is an example of so-called ‘phishing’, a technique used to lure naive respondents into providing contact or banking details which are then used to extract money from their bank accounts or to create stolen identities.