Richard Clayton, a researcher and security expert from Cambridge University, conducted a study that found a link between the first letters of e-mail addresses with their likelihood of receiving large amounts of spam. E-mail addresses that begin with A, M, P, and S, for example, are more likely to receive large quantities of spam than those that begin with more obscure letters, such as Q and Z.
E-mail addresses that begin with M and P will find that around 42% of their messages are spam, compared to just 21% for addresses beginning with Q. Those beginning with A will have a ratio of about 35%, compared to 20% for those beginning with Z.
Clayton’s findings challenge the common understanding that spammers care more about the domain after the @ symbol.
“Rumplestiltskin” attacks are utilized by spammers, according to Clayton. These involve rummaging through the dictionary to find words and names to take a stab at when sending out spam messages. Many of these guesses turn out to hit real e-mail addresses.
Clayton utilized data from incoming e-mails to Demon Internet, a UK ISP, which uses Cloudmark to detect spam.
The (relatively uninspiring) takeaway for e-mail users is simple: if you care about making an almost irrelevant dent in the amount of spam you receive, make sure you choose an e-mail address that begins with lesser used letters.
Sources:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150519/is_your_name_a_spam_magnet.html
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/08/29/report-spam-ratio-depends-on-addresss-first-letter
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/aardvark.pdf
Jason Hahn
e: jhahn221@gmail.com
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