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Study: More Spam but Fewer Complaints
NEW YORK - Spam messages are
increasingly plaguing e-mail inboxes, but more Americans are accepting them as a
fact of life, a new study finds.
Thirty-seven percent of U.S. e-mail users say they are
getting more junk in their personal e-mail accounts, and 29 percent see an
increase in their work accounts. About half say they have not noticed a change,
the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in its study, released
Wednesday.
Meanwhile, 28 percent of Internet users now say that spam is
not a problem at all, up from 16 percent in June 2003.
"It's maybe starting to become part of life online," said
Susannah Fox, associate director with Pew. "Once something's part of life
online, people feel that they should just stop complaining about it and move on,
even though people are still annoyed by it."
Pew said that spam with pornography _ the type users are
most likely to complain about _ appears to be dropping in relation to pitches
for drugs and financial opportunities as well as scams for sensitive data like
passwords.
People have also gotten smarter about blocking spam with
software filters and using techniques for making their e-mail addresses more
difficult for spammers to find. The study did not ask whether the junk messages
people were getting more of were in spam folders or regular inboxes.
The telephone survey of 1,492 U.S. adult Internet users, conducted Feb. 15 to
March 7, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer (FOXNews.com)
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