Data Points: Profiting From Spam E-Mail
Computer scientists infiltrated a spam network to conduct spam campaigns and study how spammers make money
Posted November 13, 2008
- 350 million: Number of spam E-mails sent using the Storm spam network advertising a fake online pharmacy site
- 28: Number of sales that would have resulted from the 350 million E-mails, all but one for male enhancement products*
- Less than 0.00001%: Response rate of the E-mail campaign
- $2,731.88: Revenue that would have resulted from the 28 sales
- $7,000 per day or $3.5 million per year: Revenue the researchers estimate the Storm spam network takes in
*The site returned an error message when visitors clicked a button to submit credit card details and make a purchase
Sources: University of California, Berkeley and UC, San Diego; BBC
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