Dear Friend: 92 percent of all email is spam, says Symantec
By Laura June 
posted August 12th 2010 7:59PM
posted August 12th 2010 7:59PM
This statistic may or may not come as a surprise, depending on how closely you monitor your email inbox. Symantec has released an estimate that 92 percent of all email is spam, up from 89 percent last year. The good news? Phishing attacks declined 5 percent this year, and if we had to make a guess, we'd say attacks of listening to Phish are on an upswing. Check out another one of our favorite example spams below.
I believe this....
@Plazmic Flame anyone who's ever managed e-mail for a company believes this. Doesn't help when your employees use their f***ing company e-mail addresses to register for everything on the planet.
@Plazmic Flame I wouldn't consider Symantec an authority on ANYthing. The sheer amount of SPAM and virii its software entirely misses is astonishing.
You want to filter spam? Get an appliance like a Barracuda.
@Jordus SPAM!!!!
@Plazmic Flame lies, lies I tell ya. There are people outta there who genuinely need my Viagra pills that I import from a person I don't know who lives somewhere in China. I get them for a 95% discount.
@Jordus
The Symantec Corporation are a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
It would not be 92%. That's what Symantec can only detect. I agree with one of the repliers.
I would say the figure is closer to, or greater than, 98%.
@Plazmic Flame
spam spam spam spam
I'm a apple fanboy
spam spam spam spam
send me all your info
spam spam spam spam
No Spam, I do not need a Lightsaber Enlargement
@Lord Vader Thats not what they mean by "You can be 4 inches longer in just 2 weeks!"
@Brt312
News to me.
@Lord Vader How about boobs? You like boobs, right?
@Lord Vader
Only on engadget :D, you just make engadget better and more fun to read, gizmodo can go to hell :D
@Brt312
LOL. Lord Vader's post was good. Yours is even better. Nice 1-2.
This is why we have Spam filters.
On the bright side, the spam filters on most email service providers (yahoo, hotmail, and especially gmail) are pretty good now. Can't think when the last time I received a spam with gmail.
SPAM? why pick such a horrible and cheap lunchmeat
I just gave away my Social Security # to make my dick bigger!
@Diggler Unfortunately, you will have no use for it.
@VetteDude I'll never take a piss again?
@Diggler Isn't it already huge?
That is not surprising, people notify IT when one spam message gets through our filter to their mailbox. Yet they do not realize that tens of thousands of messages are being blocked already.
I need to contact information for "Mt Kelly Khumalo".
I wish yahoo was better at blocking this crap. It get all kinds of lesbiien-twatzs((_makedike garbage in my inbox. They think they mispell words they can get past the filters. Or they just mash the keyboard.
@lakersin2025 Judging by your pic (Laker girl's teets), I would say you are a hetero male. Trust me, lesbian spam is not the worst thing you could get...
@Diggler In fact it may be one of the best things you can get. I wish my non-spam emails were that interesting.
That's what she said...
I don't get that much spam mail...
Damnit Craigslist phishers. Stop it!
How do all these spammers know about my need for penile enlargement? It's like they can get in my head (no pun intended).
U mean that nice man from africa who tipped me on that dead widows bank account is a fraud? If u can't trust someone on the internet then who can u trust
Just asking a question of readers here.
Has anyone ever actually bought Viagra from an email? And have they actually received some in the post?
I'm just curious. If you reply "Yes, I want a longer lasting erection. Please send me drugs". Will you get some?
I get about 100 spam emails a day( all from the same company...they won't listen to my unsubscribe requests...) as a result I've had to get rid of my childhood address(:-() and make a new one...at which I get about an email or two a day...
Long story short, I believe this.
I see maybe 1 piece of spam every couple of months, so when will the spam business model fail?
Last week, all my emails were offers for free pap smears, now i like the FooFighters and all, but........ oops that's Pat Smear
When I first saw this article I thought it said 92% of email is sperm. This article instantly got less interesting.
Yeah, but this is coming from Symantec, who's products are basically viruses themselves...
This is why the whole system needs to be changed to a whitelist only. Spammers need to be hung by their jinglebells with a rusty nail.
After switching to Gmail a year ago, I've never seen spam mail again. It all goes to my Spam folder instead of my inbox.
@TheMichaelJackson
After excluding every single email that says "friend" in it, yeah, I've had no issues.
Honestly, who calls you friend in an email?
I disagree with this statistic. I might see one spam message a month on my university email account. It also helps that I don't go around posting the address everywhere on the interwebs.
@ultim8f8
My thought exactly, it all depends on how much you whore your address out. That said your uni probably has a spam filter, but 92% is def an overstated number
@Sepirioth
so wait because 2 people get less than 92% spam that means a study saying that 92% of email is spam is wrong?
wasn't at least one of you two supposed to be getting a university-level education? sigh.
my personal figure is somewhere around 99.5% (and my ISP already applies a light spam filter before it gets to me, so maybe the real one is higher still), so I was a bit surprised that they're quoting it as low as 92%. But given that I don't have any general evidence, I'll refrain from claiming the study is wrong...
Where's the cyberpolice when we need them?
So I didn't win that UK lottery?! How do I get my 5K back?!
ROFLMAO... He wants to share the money because he shares your last name?!?!?!?! That is just soo ROFL-COPTER!!!
i'm a spam h8r.
SPAM I love that food...I use it to cover my farts ...sorry 2 am
SPAM I love that food...I use it to cover my farts ...sorry 2 am
"dear friend" "sorry to have bothered you" "we look forward to your visit" F#CK OFF! F#CK OFF! F#CK OFF! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr