12% of e-mail users have actually tried to buy stuff from spam

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/12-of-e-mail-users-try-to-buy-stuff-from-spam-e-mail.ars

I am glad to report I get *no spam* and haven't for years. The best thing I ever did was ditch my free email accounts and move to Fastmail.fm.

 

It's really amazing some people actually fall for this stuff.

 

Quite annoying. I wonder if any free mail accounts provide a no spam service.

Why do people respond to spam?

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso

 

That's just an unbelievable statistic, isn't it? I agree Fastmail does a great job. Also, using your own domain, turning off catch-all, and assigning a name for every new email correspondent makes a perfect whitelist-like approach. For example, if you sign up at Wilders, you use wilders@mydomain.com . Most hosting providers make it sooo easy to add a new email name (not as a full user - but a forward or "alias") that it just takes an extra few seconds and well worth it to have ZERO spam. If I ever DO get spam from somebody, I know exactly who it's from and can go to that account in my host's email management console and hit "delete" - problem solved. With domain names as cheap as $1 for GoDaddy when they run their specials and hosting from free (000web.com - the best no-ads free host by far) to paid (numerous - I use Dreamhost) it's now a viable option for everybody.

 

For as far as I know, Hotmail/(Live Mail ?? ) is free, although there may be a paid version, not sure.

I have NEVER received a spam email in my free Hotmail account.