Is spam e-mail finally on the decline?

It is indeed, says Google's spam enforcer Brad Taylor. In an interview with Wired, the staff software engineer for Google's wildly popular Gmail service says the volume of bogus e-mail messages is beginning to plateau, and could be declining for the first time in anyone's memory.

Taylor didn't share any raw numbers with Wired. He said merely that spam as a percentage of legitimate e-mail is down. Already, there are sceptics, including this Gmail user who has not seen any tail-off whatsoever in the number of get-rich-quick-work-from-home-improve-your-potency-full-head-of-hair-Nigerian-lottery-winning-ticket missives.

Wired quotes Forrester Research's Chenxi Wang who says, to the contrary, spam volumes are going in one direction: up.

Interestingly, one of the more reliable daily measuring sticks about spam intrusions is no longer published online.

E-mail security firm Postini would publish daily the grim news of how much of the daily flow of email is in the form of spam. Google purchased Postini earlier this year for $625 million (£303 million) in cash, and now, the daily tracker is no longer online.

Perhaps the Postini specialists are too busy counting up the cash to update the daily tally. Regardless, the sudden disappearance of a highly regarded tracker makes outrageous statements like 'we are winning the war on spam' a bit easier to make.

If you believe Taylor's statement, I have a once in a lifetime offer for you. Just send me your bank details. A colleague from Nigeria will be in touch. By e-mail.

Comments

[Monty Python]

A small number of people are responsible for the vast majority of spam.

Targeting them would be more effective than all the spam filters.

For a fraction of the cost of filters, huge numbers of users would gladly break a few legs for the common weal.

[Amy]

Maybe people just got clued into the idea that if you dont give your real address when you sign up for stuff, you don't get nearly as much junk!