DELETING SPAM COSTS BILLIONS ,STUDY FINDS

[Anonymous]

Deleting Spam Costs Billions, Study Finds

NEW YORK (Feb. 05) – Time wasted deleting junk e-mail costs
American businesses nearly $22 billion a year, according to a new study from the
University of Maryland.

A telephone-based survey of adults who use the Internet
found that more than three-quarters receive spam daily. The average spam
messages per day is 18.5 and the average time spent per day deleting them is 2.8
minutes.

The loss in productivity is equivalent to $21.6 billion per
year at average U.S. wages, according to the National Technology Readiness
Survey produced by Rockbridge Associates, Inc., and the Center for Excellence in
Service at Maryland’s business school.

The study, to be released Thursday, also found that 14
percent of spam recipients actually read messages to see what they say, and 4
percent of the recipients have bought something advertised through spam within
the past year.

The random survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted in
November and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage
points

[Author]

February 6, 2005 at 10:34 AM