 |
 |
|||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
 |
| ||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Herman Trend Alert December 20, 2006 Spam Affecting Productivity When Joyce was in the Direct Marketing industry decades ago, she likened advertising mail (to call it "junk" was sacrilegious) to a flower that blooms in the wrong place. No matter how beautiful it was, it was characterized as "a weed". So it is with unwanted advertising e-mails. We call them "spam". According to a Reuters report out of London, spam now accounts for a full 90 percent of all e-mails. The report details that "criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted e-mails peddling sex, drugs, and stock tips". A U.S. e-mail security company, Postini, reports that "The number of spam messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of ten e-mails sent worldwide". Reuters observed that "as Christmas approaches, the daily trawl through in-boxes clogged with offers of fake Viagra, loans, and sex aids is tipped to take even longer." Taking longer not only reduces productivity, but also increases the visibility of the "advertising" messages. In November, Postini detected an astounding 7 billion spam e-mails across the globe, compared to 2.5 billion in June. "About 200 illegal gangs are behind 80 percent of unwanted e-mails, according to Spamhaus, a spam-tracking agency. To create these billions of spam messages, millions of home computers are hijacked to send these increasingly annoying unwanted messages e-mails. These "zombie networks", also called "botnets", can link 100,000 home computers unbeknownst to their owners’. These networks are then leased to gangs who use their enormous "free" computing power to send millions of e-mails with relative anonymity. A study released last year by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business reported that computer users spent an average of three minutes a day or 22.9 million hours per week deleting spam e-mail. That time translated to a loss of productivity and a financial loss of $21.58 billion per year. And that was last year when spam levels were far lower than they are now. All of these numbers make the case for a investing in more robust spam-blocking software to reduce the loss of productivity.
© Copyright 1998- by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurist. 1.336.210.3548 or https://hermangroup.com. To sign up, visit https://HermanTrendAlert.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc."
HEAR JOYCE SPEAK TOMORROW AT 11:30 AM EDT
GET COACHING FOR YOUR PEOPLE FOR LESS THAN $1/DAY!
JOYCE IS ON THE RADIO EVERYDAY NOW To read this Herman Trend Alert on the web: https://hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-29-2023.html.
Herman Trend Alerts are produced by the Herman Group, strategic business futurists, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and professional speakers. New subscribers are always welcome. There is no charge for this public service. The Herman Trend Alert is read by over 30,000 people in 90 countries, including other websites and printed periodicals. Click here to sign up for the Herman Trend Alert. Do you enjoy receiving this weekly e-mail update? Contact us about our co-branded Herman Trend Alert service.
|
 |
|
7112 Viridian Lane |
|
Web site design by WebEditor Design Services, Inc.
Subscribe or Unsubscribe to weekly Herman Trend Alert