Who is clicking on spam?

Have you ever asked yourself who clicks on spam, and why? This month the MAAWG released a new report, the 2010 MAAWG Consumer Survey Key Findings Report, which can be downloaded here. The results from respondents give some interesting insights in consumer behavior with regards to spam and email security.

The most interesting conclusions I found are listed below.

While six in ten email users (61%) say that they usually refrain from opening emails that they suspect may be spam, only 39% mention taking the extra step of flagging it as spam and 44% say they move it to a junk folder.

So most consumers do not typically open spam, however many email users  have opened one or more spam mails in the past:

Though six in ten say that they typically do not open messages they think are spam, 43% of email users have opened spam in the past, and many have put themselves at even greater risk: clicking on links (11%), opening attachments (8%), replying (4%) or forwarding (4%) these messages.

If you think that spam readers are computer illiterates that don’t know much about security treats you could be surprised:

Those who consider themselves experts or very experienced with Internet security – and who also tend to be younger – are more likely than those who feel inexperienced to have opened spam (52% vs. 38%).

Indeed, some experts like me do occasionally open spam mails to see where they come from, or why they made it to the inbox. See also this post at Word to the Wise. But why do others open spam, or even act on it?

While most users who have opened spam in the past say that it was because they didn’t realize it was spam (57%) or they did so by mistake (33%), others have opened emails that they expected were spam intentionally.

Some of these users are just plain “thrill seekers”:

Men – who also tend to take more risks when sorting through their inbox – are more likely than women to say they open spam purposefully, out of curiosity (21% vs. 14%) or out of interest in the email’s offerings (17% vs. 13%).

Apparently email security is like having safe sex, it requires strong self discipline to avoid the risks.