Spam, an Acquired Taste

Americans are learning how to digest spam.

That's the finding of a new survey of more than 1,400 Internet users conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The data suggest that we're tolerating spam better than we used to, even though the online menace isn't diminishing.

The "news" out of the Pew survey is this: "Compared to a year ago, fewer e-mail users now say that spam is undermining their trust in e-mail, eroding their e-mail use or making life online unpleasant or annoying."

"It's one of the annoyances in life that you eventually resign yourself to," Pew Internet chief Lee Rainie told me in an interview this morning.

I, for one, am not resigned to learning to live with an inbox full of spam. And if the Pew findings are an indication of a larger trend, it makes me worry that the editors here might not find spam such a hot topic anymore, which could decrease my chance of snaring prime real estate for my articles. But I digress...

So is spam gradually fading into the equivalent of background muzak? After all, we humans are talented at filtering out chronic distractions. We did it with the daily rush hour, the annoyance of overhearing strangers' cell phone conversations, the threat of nuclear annihilation and those people who order half-caf, semi-skim, double-shot espresso drinks in front of us at the coffee shop. Now, the Pew survey says, we're doing it with spam.

There could be another explanation for the Pew findings. As more people use the Internet to shop, pay bills and perform other critical aspects of daily life, they begin to worry about a far more dangerous threat -- an increase in online crime. The San Jose Mercury News covered this angle in its report this morning: "People may also be more worried about newer, more malicious Internet threats such as 'phishing' scams, in which e-mail messages purport to be from a legitimate company such as a bank asking the user for personal information. The Pew survey found that 35 percent of users said they have received phishing messages, with about 2 percent providing information to the scam artists.

washingtonpost.com and other news sources in the mainstream and technology press have spent several years warning people of the dangers of identity theft and urging computer users to guard their data on the Internet. Now it seems like the problem is truly beginning to dawn on mainstream American computer users.

Lawmakers, ever eager to please the voters by cracking down on crime, have taken notice. USA Today reported that there are at least a dozen federal and state bills circulating this year that deal with privacy protection, spyware and phishing scams. "Phishing scams, fraudulent e-mails or Web sites that trick computer users into surrendering personal information, burned U.S. consumers for $500 million in the 12-month period ended September 2004, says researcher Ponemon Institute," the paper reported. "Damages from spyware, software that quietly monitors the activities of Internet users: More than $200 million to U.S. consumers last year, Ponemon says."

The Washington Post wrote about one anti-phishing bill that passed in the Virginia General Assembly. It would fine criminals up to $2,500 and send them to prison for up to five years for sending phishing e-mails that deceive people into yielding sensitive data like their bank account routing numbers and Social Security numbers.