A new survey from e-mail marketing firm Bigfoot Interactive shows 57 percent of consumers strongly or somewhat agreed that the amount of spam they received during the past year decreased.
Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed strongly or somewhat disagreed with that assessment, and 4 percent had no response or didn't know.
Bigfoot also found that 57 percent of consumers said the e-mails they got from companies they do business with are more targeted than the same communications they received from the same firms a year ago. Thirty-five percent disagreed, and 8 percent didn't answer or know.
Regarding phishing, 34 percent of the consumers strongly or somewhat agreed they have received a fraudulent or phishing e-mail disguised as a legitimate message asking them to verify personal information.
Also, only 32 percent strongly agreed they were confident they could identify or detect a fraudulent e-mail designed to look like a genuine one from businesses, financial institutions and government agencies.
The survey found that the use of anti-spam software is high. Moreover, false positives persist: 25 percent said they recently lost or didn't receive an e-mail they were supposed to get from a trusted source, and 32 percent said the e-mail they received from a trusted source was delivered to a junk mail folder.
Security concerns also were expressed in the survey, as nine out of 10 consumers showed interest in verification functionality from their Internet or e-mail service provider.
Mickey Alam Khan covers Internet marketing campaigns and e-commerce, agency news as well as circulation for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
