Spammers unaffected by new law

WASHINGTON: "Spam" e-mail is proving more irritating than ever to U.S. Internet users since a national anti-spam law took effect January 1, according to a survey.

Internet users are more likely to say e-mail is less trustworthy and less reliable than when they were surveyed in June, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found.

Internet users also are more likely to say spam has made the online experience unpleasant, the nonprofit research group said.

Get-rich-quick schemes, miracle cures and other unsolicited bulk messages accounted for 62 percent of all e-mail in February, according to filtering company Brightmail Inc.

The 1,371 Internet users surveyed by Pew between February 3 and March 1 said they have seen little change since the law took effect.

Slightly more than half said they saw no change in the amount of spam they received at home or work.

Twenty-nine percent said they had reduced their use of e-mail because of spam, up from 25 percent who said so last June.

Sixty-three percent said spam made them less trusting of e-mail in general, up from 52 percent, and 77 percent said the flood of spam made the act of being online unpleasant and annoying, up from 70 percent.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

© Reuters