Idaho Tops America's Most-Spammed States 97
An anonymous reader writes "MessageLabs unveiled a list of the top US spammed states, with surprising results — the spam capital of the US is Idaho, with 93.8 percent of spam, far exceeding the global spam rate for September 2009 of 86.4 percent. Idaho has jumped 43 spots since 2008 when it was ranked the 44th most spammed state. The difference can be attributed to the resilient and aggressive botnet market as well as a higher volume of global spam that has ensued since the beginning of the credit crisis toward the end of 2008."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How surprising. We've seen lots of symantec articles already here on slashdot already. Please dont spamming us with worthless stuff. It's all for marketing.
Re:Potatoes (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, I forgot the comma.
Idaho is famous, for it's potatoes.
Re: (Score:2)
Idaho is famous, for it's potatoes.
Actually, according the Wikipedia article, Idaho is home to the world's largest process-cheese manufacturing plant. I'd link to the article, but when you're famous for process-cheese, it's all downhill from there.
Re: (Score:2)
It's = it is.
So, you were saying that Idaho is famous, for it is potatoes?
Re: (Score:1)
That's the joke.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Potatoes (Score:4, Funny)
Idaho is famous for it's potatoes.
Ever since I began reading Maddox articles I can't think of Idaho without this [thebestpag...iverse.net] in mind.
'Twas I and My Four Hundred Nineteen Potatoes (Score:4, Funny)
Seoul, South Korea.
I will introduce myself I am Mr. Dave Fu Wong, a potato farmer working in a field in South Korea Until now I am the master potato grower of three million hectres to most of the South Korea government kitchens and I have since discovered that most of the potatoes lay dormant in silos with a lot of starch in the silo on further investigation I found out that one particular silo belong to the former president of South Korean MR PARK CHUNG HEE, who ruled south Korean from 1963-1979 and this particular silo has a deposit of grade A lucky golden variety potato with no next of kin. As you know, lucky goldens do not only taste like food from the gods but can be consumed raw like an apple as well as grown anywhere even during the winter.
My proposal is that since I am the master potato growing officer and the potatoes or the silo is dormant and there is no next of kin obviously the potato owner the former president of South Korea has died long time ago, that you should provide an account for the potatoes to be transferred.
The potatoes that are floating in the silo right now are some fifty kilotonnes and this is what I want to transfer to your farm in Idoho for our mutual benefit South Korean post office is so super efficient that a single postage stamp will get these potatoes to you post haste! Unfortunately postage stamp cost fifty Korean currencies or $10,000 American Dollars (apologies for your economy) please send bank account information or cash money order for immediate shipping.
Please if this is okay by you I will advice that you contact me through my direct email address.
Please this transaction should be kept confidential. For your assistance as the account owner we shall share the potatoes on equal basis.
Your reply will be appreciated,
Thank you.
Dave Fu Wong
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
that's kind of funny, since "Unfortunately postage stamp cost fifty Korean currencies or $10,000 American Dollars " is way off.
I think yesterday when I got some korean won out of the atm, the exchange rate was about 1176won to 1USD. 50 won is barely enough to have change for...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
They estimate 5 to 6 million computers are comprimised. So that means that much of the spammers are sending spam to their own comprimised machines.
Re:usa (Score:5, Informative)
The interesting question is NOT why Idaho state spams the most, but WHY usa spams so much
This is a list of the most spammed states, meaning the ones which receive the most spam. Not the ones which send the most.
Re:usa (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Ya, the article should really mention what their percentage means. It appears that their "most spammed" percentage means "the percent of mail received that is is spam". The first sentence of the article states "...the spam capital of the US is Idaho with 93.8 percent of spam...". This appears to be blatantly false; it's more likely that 93.8 % of all emails received in Idaho are spam.
Rather poorly written.
Re: (Score:2)
The article says that Idaho is the most SPAMMED, as in it receives the most spam. The article does not say that Idaho sends out the most spam.
Your comment about population is also irrelevant because this is not a measurement of volume of spam. The article measurement is a a percentage of legit mail received by people versus spam, so even the "best state" has a spam rate in the low 80%.
This article is pretty much an advertisement for Symantec products.
Re: (Score:2)
"The interesting question is NOT why Idaho state spams the most, but WHY usa spams so much."
One vector: language. People who don't have english as a first language will not fall prey to spam as easily as most native english speakers do. If you recieve mail in a language that you don't use a lot in e-mail communications it is easier to pick out the spam e-mails. If a spam mail contains a virus that turns you into a bot, you will help to propagate the spam by making the sender look reliable(because you probab
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
RTFA
Sincerely, The USA
The potato state has lots of spam (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's not got much spam in it.
Obviously... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
You forgot about our legislators.
(Scorethem:3, A Joke)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they get lonely out there and spam almost seems like someone cares to send them a message.
Re:Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)
When I first moved to Idaho, I commented to a local about the high proportion of pregnant teenage girls in the high school. Her comment was "It's Idaho, there is nothing to do but your neighbor."
Re: (Score:2)
When I first moved to Idaho, I commented to a local about the high proportion of pregnant teenage girls in the high school. Her comment was "It's Idaho, there is nothing to do but your neighbor."
Not necessarily a bad way to spend your time, but my understanding is that if you really want to blend in, you'll want to take your neighbour four-wheeling, and then add shooting rodents (prairie dogs?) to mix.
Re: (Score:2)
No prairie dogs that I saw. Moose, elk, dear, black bear, brown bear, wolves, coyotes, foxes, big horn sheep, turkey and almost every other game animal in the lower 48. And we actually did go four-wheeling with the neighbors. I didn't mention I own a tricked-out Jeep Scrambler... :-)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Why did you get so "lucky" as to move to Idaho? I've driven through that state. I saw lots of cows, but not much humans.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The panhandle, up near Coeur d'Alene, is gorgeous country. If you like outdoor activities: skiing, hiking, boating, hunting, fishing, 4x4ing, etc. it can't be beat short of Alaska.
Re: (Score:2)
Shhhhh..... That is best kept a secret friend. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
(hops in car) - Idaho Panhandle here I come!
Re: (Score:2)
No, stay away! Ever since some big magazine (Forbes IIRC) published some big article about Idaho being one of the top X places to live, we've had droves of people who drive like they're in California. They even have Obama bumper stickers. (The Idaho liberal is typically a lonely or an institutionalized person. And being in college is being institutionalized.)
Idaho? (Score:1)
No, you da ho!
Re: (Score:1)
Teenage pregnancy can't be that bad...since where I currently live in NW Arizona...it's the state's #1 school system for teenage mothers out of all the districts in the state. That's out of two local high schools & three junior high schools.
Re: (Score:2)
What a surprise (Score:3, Funny)
When you think high tech, well networked states, you don't tend to think of there.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I once received a magazine subscription offer, from "Time" if I remember correctly, that asked the question, "What would you do if they built a nuclear reactor near Idaho Falls".
You probably won't understand why I laughed about this without this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_National_Laboratory, or the quote from that article "INL has 52 reactors, three of which are reportedly still operating". I suspect they are probably underestimating both those numbers.
Idaho has a lot of farmers, but also has
Re: (Score:2)
Yes - Idaho is a filth-encrusted hole of pestilence and misery. You don't want to move here.
(We have to say that to keep all the Californians out.)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes - Idaho is a filth-encrusted hole of pestilence and misery. You don't want to move here.
(We have to say that to keep all the Californians out.)
Gosh... I own a house in Idaho, and was planning to sell it, but maybe we should just move there!
(What's the job market like in Gooding?)
Do Your Potatoes Leave Her Laughing? (Score:4, Funny)
I understand where you are going, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
MessageLabs unveiled a list of the top U.S. spammed states, with surprising results - the spam capital of the US is Idaho with 93.8 percent of spam, far exceeding the global spam rate for September 2009 of 86.4 percent.
...what sort of poorly-stated metric is "percent of spam"
Re:I understand where you are going, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm also having problems finding their methods. Or ideas why Idaho would top the list. "The recession" isn't a localized phenomenon affecting just Idaho.
Garbage.
Re: (Score:2)
yeah... I actually read TFA because I figured the summary was just garbage. But no, that's how the article puts it, too, without EVER explaining what on earth they're trying to say.
Re: (Score:2)
Ugh, horrible bad usage, batman (Score:5, Insightful)
Spam comprises 93% of emails in Idaho. Very big difference.
And as for the reasons given? Ridiculous, unless you can also explain why Idaho was disproportionately affected by those factors.
You want to know the real reasons Idaho is one of the most spammed states?
Higher percentage of "noob" users. Idaho came to the table pretty late, and a disproportionate number of people in Idaho don't yet know basic ways of reducing spam.
Or possibly, people in Idaho are more likely to fall for spam advertising.
But in no way do the reasons given (which relate to the total increase in spam) explain Idaho's predicament.
On second thought (Score:2)
Potatoes, spam, eggs, spam and spam has a lot more spam in it than spam, eggs, sausage and spam.
Re: (Score:2)
Higher percentage of "noob" users. Idaho came to the table pretty late ...
Not sure if you're trying to be funny but it's more likely that Idaho has a smaller population than most states (1.5 million?) and therefore if they get the same amount of spam as another state, it's going to skew their percentages. I'm guessing spam is sent in indifferent loads to companies and spam targeting companies is probably common. I guess usage of Gmail or Hotmail wouldn't skew this but I'm betting we're seeing an outlier because of the low population in Idaho. Not because they're any more 'n00b
Re: (Score:2)
Not to defend the GP, but there are plenty of other low population states, and none of them even made the top ten. In fact, most of the rest of the top-listed are among the most populous states.
It seems much more likely to me that it's as an AC above posted--the data are bullshit. It reads like a survey released by a security software company to sell more copies of their tools. In a word, spam.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm gonna go with the BS option personally.
Re: (Score:2)
Mostly it was just an observation that the usage in TFA is completely off, coupled with some unfounded speculation, and then at some point it became a setup for a piss-poor spam joke that e
Re: (Score:1)
I have evidence. My son's elementary school newsletter this week has a notice in it that as of next week they're "going paperless" and will only be posting future newsletters and other correspondence to the web site. A great idea that will probably help a bit with the budget shortfall. It says at the end, "Please contact us if you do not have web access so we can keep you in the loop." Really. In 2009.
Re: (Score:2)
Idaho has 93% of spam. No.
Spam comprises 93% of emails in Idaho. Very big difference.
I'm guessing that's what they meant also, but really, there's no confirmation of this theory anywhere in TFA. It's simply the most sensible interpretation of their fumbling attempt to discourse.
You want to know the real reasons Idaho is one of the most spammed states?
Higher percentage of "noob" users. Idaho came to the table pretty late, and a disproportionate number of people in Idaho don't yet know basic ways of reducing spam.
Or possibly, people in Idaho are more likely to fall for spam advertising.
I doubt it's either of these. A very low percentage of emails give much geographic information about their associated users, so even if Idaho was the Spam Sucker Capital of the Universe, the spammers wouldn't know how to target Idahoans. And I think that, even if it's true that Idaho adopted email later relative t
My personal war... (Score:3, Informative)
Whenever someone asks me about a spam email and whether the email is true, I respond with "No legitimate business uses spam, unsolicited email, or whatever you want to call it. They are all scams - no exceptions."
Start educating people that that email in their inbox is a scam. Period. And maybe, just maybe, one day those crooks will stop this shit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
( ) technical (X) legislative (X) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
(X) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
(X) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the mone
Article is nonsense (Score:5, Interesting)
Idaho is ill prepared for the war on spam. (Score:3, Funny)
Their state of the art weaponry can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHUyKrJeNv0 [youtube.com]
World smallest fiddle... (Score:2)
Seriously though - who cares what state gets the most spam? Its not like spam is more prevalanent in low income areas or in areas with high instances of drug usage - and its not like I am going to NOT move somewhere because they have a lot of spam (unless you are talking about the "food" variety).
Re: (Score:2)
its not like I am going to NOT move somewhere because they have a lot of spam (unless you are talking about the "food" variety).
So you avoid Hawaii like the plague?
Re: (Score:2)
And you, sir, have trouble with multiple nested negatives. He's NOT going to NOT move somewhere because they have a lot of spam... take out both negatives, he's perfectly fine living somewhere with a lot of spam. UNLESS (another negative) you are talking about the food variety... implying that he *would* avoid living somewhere that had an overrepresentation of food Spam (R). Such as Hawaii.
Of course its Idaho! (Score:2)
I don't get why a cooking article is on /. but I mean, who hasn't had some Mashed potatoes and SPAMburgers at some point in their life?
Conclusion does not support evidence (Score:3, Insightful)
The difference can be attributed to the resilient and aggressive botnet market as well as a higher volume of global spam that has ensued since the beginning of the credit crisis toward the end of 2008.
Um... no, those two facts can perhaps help to explain the overall increase in spam, globally. They do absolutely nothing to explain why Idaho, specifically, has jumped up the list of being spammed more often per capita.
Spaming slashdot (Score:2)
How would you measure this? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Please enlighten us, could we have your full email address, to verify your spam percentage?
Re: (Score:2)
Sure!
HughJass@biggbutts.com
Re: (Score:2)
How would they know that those email addresses belong to someone in Idaho?
Perhaps they are able to figure it out based on the location of the ip address that is connecting to your email accounts...
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
That depends on how they read the data, doesn't it. I mean if more useless gits respond from Idaho...
Check this out (Score:1)
Not Idaho (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that Hawaii [viamagazine.com] is the national span capitol.
Where do you get the source report? (Score:1)
What he meant to say... (Score:2)
>The difference can be attributed to the resilient and aggressive botnet market as well as a higher volume of global spam that has >ensued since the beginning of the credit crisis toward the end of 2008
Translation...
In the mid USA where most hicks live and breed, is where you will find the most success spreading the Nigerian scams
where most people living on the coast (east or west) would have seen this scam coming a mile away.
Seriously though, you WILL find more success where there is less tech presen
Now I know... (Score:1)