Filed in archive Spam News by Sue Walsh on April 5, 2008

McAfee is conducting a massive experiment that involves volunteers using new laptops to respond to every single piece of spam they receive, sign up for competitions, make purchases online, and more. Called Spammed Persistently All Month, it will last 30 days. Records of their actions will be kept in an attempt to track spam patterns.
There are 49 volunteers in 10 countries.

"Spam is not just a nuisance, it is a tool used by cyber-criminals to steal personal and business data," said Christopher Bolin, chief technology officer at McAfee. "As scammers become more adept at writing spam in local languages it is becoming more difficult for internet users to detect spam. It is vital that users understand the risks of leaving their computers unprotected."

Is this a good idea or will it just serve to encourage spammers? Drop us a comment and let us know what you think!

Related Entries:

FTC Issues Report on Malicious Spam and Phishing - 01 January 2008
New Phishing Attack Masquerades as Government Alert - 12 January 2008
Exposing a Phishing Attack - 19 January 2008
McAfee Launches SPAM Experiment - 31 March 2008
FBI Issues Phishing Warning - 24 May 2008

« March Spam Statistics | Main | Spam Isn't Free Speech »

Permalink: McAfee To Conduct Massive Spam Survey

Tags: spammers spam McAfee spam experiment phishing email security mcafee conduct+massive

Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/119253

Addthis

Ask

Blinklist

del.icio.us

Digg

Fark

Facebook

Google

Lycos

Ma.gnolia

Mr Wong

Netscape

Netvousz

Newsvine

StumbleUpon

Slashdot

Tailrank

Technorati

Wink

Yahoo

Vote for McAfee To Conduct Massive Spam Survey:

Currently 8.14/10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Rating: 8.14 out of 7 vote(s) cast.

Response from: jayy (11/17/08 4:52am)

I got a laptop battery from http://www.bestebuy.co.uk/
for my apple Latitude notebook. My old one lasted just 1 hour after just about a year of use. Needed another one, and now things are back to normal.