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Things We All Hate is the weekly newsletter from OZY that explores how our shared dislikes can help bring us together in hard times. Feb 28, 2022 THINGS WE ALL HATE The trip to your mailbox is not what it used to be. With personal correspondence and billing now largely online, what awaits you in the good ole snail mail is mostly just an assortment of marketing materials, coupon books, and official-looking, nondescript envelopes hoping to cajole you into refinancing your mortgage. Some mailings even contain pleas and veiled threats of âdated material insideâ or âimportant information about your account.â Scammers, snake oil salesmen, and direct marketers have used the postal service for decades to harvest their bounties from a vulnerable public. And in recent years, the action has moved online as well as our Inboxes increasingly fill with bizarre, ungrammatical, and occasionally irresistible, spam emails and ads. In this weekâs edition of Things We All Hate, we dive deep into the accumulating and unopened questions around the public nuisance created by junk mail and spam.
Why Are Junk Mail and Spam Such a Pain? It fills your mailbox⦠According to the U.S. Postal Serviceâs (USPS) own numbers, [63 percent of all mail]( delivered in the U.S. in 2019 was junk mail. And not by accident: the USPS brought in [more than $16 billion]( in revenue from marketing mail that year. Most items of junk mail do not find a receptive audience. About [25 percent is discarded]( right away, and 50 percent looked at by the recipient before also being thrown away. â¦and your Inbox Junk mail is of course now digital as well. Nearly 300 billion emails are sent and received every day, and spam messages accounted for more than 45 percent of email traffic in March 2021, according to [Statista](. Which country is most responsible for invading your inbox without permission? Russia, where nearly 25 percent of unsolicited emails originated. Actual malice Most spam emails are benign if annoying, but a growing number of variants include spyware, trojans, ransomware, and other malicious agents designed to damage systems or compromise recipientsâ personal information. It was a so-called [âphishingâ expedition]( by Russian hackers that famously led to the hacking of the Democratic National Committeeâs emails in 2016 when a fake âaccount resetâ claiming to be from Google sent to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta was opened. Big Phish get fried too Even large technology titans like Google and Facebook fall victim to phishing scams, including one fake invoicing scheme perpetrated in 2013 by a [Lithuanian hacker]( who tricked both companies into paying out more than $100 million to him. SHARE: What types of junk mail or spam tactics do you find most annoying? Join the conversation and share with us on [FB](, [IG](, [Twitter]( with the hashtag #ThingsWeAllHate #OZY
How Did We Get Here? Getting addicted to junk mail Junk mail has been around just about as long as regular mail, including back in the [mid-19th century]( when small town postmasters were tasked by advertisers to pass along their mailers to relevant targets in their communities. But it wasnât until the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which required the USPS to pay for itself without government subsidies, that things really exploded. As a result, [marketing mail surged]( with each U.S. household going from receiving 4.5 pieces of junk mail a week in 1975 to four per day in 2015. Paying with your annoyance When you think about it, getting junk mail is not too different from watching advertisements before YouTube videos or other online content: American taxpayers pay by giving their time and attention to unsolicited advertisements before getting to enjoy a free product. Youâve got Spam! It is believed that the first spam message came from a marketer at Digital Equipment Corporation named Gary Thuerk, who in 1978 sent out messages advertising the companyâs newest computer system to over 400 subscribers to ARPANET, an early online network. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam⦠Junk email was not the first spam. Hormel Foods introduced a [tinned lunch meat]( called Spam (from a shortening of âspiced hamâ) in 1937, and decades later watched in horror as their brand name became synonymous with unwanted messages sent over the internet. The term originated in early online communities as a reference to a zany [Monty Python comedy sketch]( in which a café serves mostly Spam.
Fun and Frustrating Facts Uncle Samâs mail campaign Given a small budget for advertising by Congress, the U.S. Treasury turned to the postal service and direct mail during the 1930s in order to advertise [its first savings bonds]( to Americans during the Great Depression. A tale as old as time Almost everyone has heard of the famous Nigerian Prince email scam. But such a conâin which a desperate, wealthy foreigner makes escalating requests for help in broken Englishâdates back centuries, including the eerily similar [âSpanish Prisonerâ scam]( of the late 19th century. Spam may be annoying but it works According to [one study](, spammers generate around $200 million per year, which comes at a cost of about $20 billion to U.S. individuals and businesses. Things are improving It may not feel like it but the amount of junk mail sent in the U.S. has declined by 38 percent [since 2007](. Similarly, the global email spam rate has dropped around 20 percent [since 2012](. CATCH THE NEWEST EPISODES OF [The Carlos Watson Show, Season 4]( Could Junk Mail and Spam Suck Less? Strategies to reduce junk mail⦠There are some actions you can take in the U.S. to reduce the volume of direct mail you receive. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides guidance [on its website]( on how to stop credit card and insurance offers and receive less direct mail from marketers. â¦and filter spam Anti-spam software is getting increasingly sophisticated but remains mostly the proprietary work of companies like Google (Gmail) and Microsoft (Outlook, Hotmail). The FTC also [provides information]( on how to get fewer spam emails and also report unwanted or fraudulent ones. An arms race with AI and Blockchain As technology improves so do the methods deployed by spammers and anti-spammers. Expect [future spam]( to use advanced AI and move into the virtual world through deep-fake video and images targeting recipients, and future blocking strategies to include blockchain and other technologies to authenticate users and protect systems from attack. SHARE: How would you reduce the volume of junk mail or spam we receive? Join the conversation and share with us on [FB](, [IG](, [Twitter]( with the hashtag #ThingsWeAllHate #OZY This Will Make You Feel Better⦠Kramer Quits the Mail âI want out,â [Kramer famously proclaims]( at the USPS counter in âThe Junk Mailâ episode of the hit television comedy Seinfeld. âPermanently.â But after encountering resistance, and a staged intervention from no less than Wilford Brimley as the Postmaster General (with the emphasis on âGeneralâ), Kramer relents and agrees to accept his junk mail with the rest of us. COMMUNITY CORNER How do you deal with junk mail? Share with us at OzyCommunity@Ozy.com. ABOUT OZY OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on âthe New and the Next.â OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. [www.ozy.com]( / #OZY Curiosity. Enthusiasm. Action. Thatâs OZY!
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