Spam - What it is and how does it affect you.

Spam, Unsolicited Commercial Email, Unsolicited Bulk Email or Junk Mail, whatever term you want to use, it is basically email that has been sent unsolicited to your email account. Spam has been defined as the following: The mass electronic distribution of unsolicited email to individual email accounts, email lists, Usenet groups advertising, promoting or performing any of the following actions:

a) The forwarding of email (chain letters)
b) The advertising or promotion of pornographic web sites
c) Advertising or promoting unsolicited web sites
d) The harassment of individuals or groups
e) The forgery of email headers of your email
f) The promotion of unsolicited business activities.

 

How does it it affect you.

Although some corporations view this as merely a nuisance, here are some facts to consider:

• Spam traffic has increased by 200% last year,
• some people have reported receiving between 10 to 15 unsolicited emails each day
• most people will take the time to delete the offending emails.

Now take the time it takes to delete each message, lets use 5 minutes each day, multiply that by the number of employees, and then again by the number of days worked in a given year. If you have 25 employees, that take 5 minutes each day, and multiplying that number by 360 days (Spammers work on the weekend as well) would give you approximately 750 hours each year. So now take 750 hours and multiple by the average hourly rate. The amount can be surprising. If your employees have their mail forwarded to mobile devices, they also pay for air time.