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Security Spam United States IT News

Idaho Tops America's Most-Spammed States 97

Posted by timothy from the utah-loses-out-for-once dept.
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."
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The Top-Spammed States In the US More

The Top-Spammed States In the US

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  • From: Mr. Dave Fu Wong
    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
    • offtopic?! try funneh!

    • 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...

  • The potato state has lots of spam (Score:4, Funny)

    by pm_rat_poison ( 1295589 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:19PM (#29533561)
    Now all that's missing for a nutritious lunch is ham and eggs

  • Obviously... (Score:3, Funny)

    by snspdaarf ( 1314399 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:20PM (#29533571)
    None of the spammers have been to Idaho.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by eskayp ( 597995 )

      You forgot about our legislators.
      (Scorethem:3, A Joke)

      • I don't think they are aware of the weekly FUD Sen. Risch (and formerly Sen. Craig) sends out, and I'm not sure if it counts as spam (though it should) since politicians likely gave themselves an exception in the CAN-SPAM act.

  • Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)

    by vertinox ( 846076 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:23PM (#29533605)

    Maybe they get lonely out there and spam almost seems like someone cares to send them a message.

    • Re:Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)

      by chill ( 34294 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @06:08PM (#29534153) Journal

      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."

      • 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)

          by chill ( 34294 )

          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)

          by Jeheto ( 1414993 )
          Well, if you're really native (like my uncles) you reach a compromise. During the summer they spend their weekends shooting ground squirrels while the other drives. Now if only we could mix all three...
        • No prairie dogs, but there are whistle-pigs (ground squirrels). When I used to live in Mountain Home (the A.F.B.) there used to be a joke that there was a "pretty girl behind every tree"... that area is a desert, no trees.

      • 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)

          by chill ( 34294 )

          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.

          • Shhhhh..... That is best kept a secret friend. ;)

            • (hops in car) - Idaho Panhandle here I come!

              • 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.)

      • No, you da ho!

      • I'm moving to Idaho in a month...been planning it for several months. All I have to say is that it beats the hell out of Arizona...especially since the #1 pickup line around here is: What a nice tooth you got. Also see t-shirts which say: Teeth...NOT in my town.

        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.
        • Well, I guess the question then is are you moving to Boise or Athol. In Boise, it's not so bad. In Athol, that pick up line will come in just fine. As for teenage pregnancy, you didn't read yesterdays "news" article about religious states did you?

  • What a surprise (Score:3, Funny)

    by Haoie ( 1277294 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:23PM (#29533607)

    When you think high tech, well networked states, you don't tend to think of there.

    • We have Micron and HP out here, so we are reasonably well connected. We also have a lot of less than technically inclined individuals. Putting the two together, I can understand why we might have so much spam.

    • 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

    • 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)

        by Ironica ( 124657 )

        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)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:23PM (#29533611) Journal
    Hey guys, hott tip, Quantum Tubers [quantumtubers.com] stock at five cents, tomorrow at five dollars! Can't lose, like printing money. Buy Buy Buy!

  • I understand where you are going, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by swanzilla ( 1458281 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:24PM (#29533629) Homepage
    FTA:

    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)

      by SoupGuru ( 723634 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:30PM (#29533695)
      I agree. I have no idea what that means. I assume that they mean what percent of overall mail is spam.

      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)

      by Ironica ( 124657 )

      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.

    • Futhermore they don't state at all how they determine the physical destination of the intended spam receiver. Perhaps they got some data that included the domains of the recipients of spam and correlated that to a location, but that would only target a portion of the population, namely those who use a business's domain that is located in a state(and not multiple states), and those who use their local ISPs email for personal mail(and with GMail, Yahoo and their ilk, who does that anymore?) I sincerely doub

  • Ugh, horrible bad usage, batman (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:25PM (#29533643) Journal
    Idaho has 93% of spam. No.

    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, the real reason Idaho has a disproportionate amount of spam is because they grow so many potatoes there.

      Potatoes, spam, eggs, spam and spam has a lot more spam in it than spam, eggs, sausage and spam.

    • 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)

        by tool462 ( 677306 )

        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.

        • Having lived in Idaho, I would say that the problem here is probably a mixture of the data being BS, population, computer's per home, average computer know-how, the actual ratio of spam to legitimate email going to users in that state, and the average air speed of a coconut-laden swallow.

          I'm gonna go with the BS option personally.
      • It's idle speculation based upon stats I'd read sometime in the past few years, plus my observations from the several vacations I've taken in Idaho (I've got family there). I personally love Idaho... but it's no secret that outside of Boise, Idaho is rural and poor, two factors that affect computer/internet penetration.

        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

      • 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)

      by Ironica ( 124657 )

      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)

    by NoYob ( 1630681 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:30PM (#29533697)
    âoeSpammers have taken full advantage of both the economic uncertainty of some and the trustworthiness of others for their own rewards. Automated tools, resilient botnets and targeted spam campaigns are all part of the spammersâ(TM) toolkit and they are constantly evolving these techniques to outsmart any effort to stop them. No state is immune to the affects of spam.â

    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)

      by Itninja ( 937614 )
      As long as it only take 1 sucker/buyer out of every million spam emails sent, I doubt it will ever stop. Now start charging $0.001 for every external email sent...them maybe it slow it down. Make the 1 buyer cost the spammer $1000 and they might at least focus their effort somewhat.
      • Your post advocates a

        ( ) 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)

    by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:36PM (#29533777)
    I don't think whoever wrote the article understands what they're trying to explain. First, the author repeatedly says "percent of spam" (e.g. "the spam capital of the US is Idaho with 93.8 percent of spam," and "...Puerto Rico, with 83.1 percent of spam") when apparently the data is actually the percent of email received in the state which is spam. Second, the explanations given for Idaho topping this list have no relevance to the question whatever. Claiming botnets and the recession are to blame with no attempt to explain how these factors impact Idaho different than other states is nonsense! Finally, even if the author understood the data, the data is uninteresting without some test of statistical significance. The difference between states with highest and lowest spam rates is only 10%, is that significant? Is it repeatable if you sampled during a different interval? Who knows.

  • Idaho is ill prepared for the war on spam. (Score:3, Funny)

    by bobdotorg ( 598873 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:37PM (#29533789)

    Their state of the art weaponry can be seen here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHUyKrJeNv0 [youtube.com]

  • ...playing just for those bored enough to make a list like this.

    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)

      by Ironica ( 124657 )

      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?

  • 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)

    by Captain Spam ( 66120 ) on Thursday September 24, 2009 @05:58PM (#29534041) Homepage

    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.

  • This is the same website with a bogus security story (straight from PR press I think) just a while back. Maybe slashdot should filter that site?
  • OK, I live in Idaho. My email addresses are Gmail and me.com accounts. How would they know that those email addresses belong to someone in Idaho? I assume the email servers where the email is delivered probably aren't even in this state. Furthermore, Google's spam filtering is pretty darn good and I rarely see any spam. Not sure what difference it makes where you live.

    • Please enlighten us, could we have your full email address, to verify your spam percentage?

    • 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...

    • I would imagine they place trap accounts\machines in Idaho or they do a survey. In the later case the data would be scewed out of this world because only the useless gits who open and subscribe to spam do those surveys.

      • That depends on how they read the data, doesn't it. I mean if more useless gits respond from Idaho...

  • I wanted to gauge computer usage in Idaho to my area so I compared the Craigslist Rants and Raves in East Idaho to my area...yeah next to Buffalo NY either East Idaho is Heaven on Earth or NOBODY owns\ knows what a computer is.

  • I'm pretty sure that Hawaii [viamagazine.com] is the national span capitol.

  • I see a lot of stories on this today, but the MessageLabs site doesn't have it and only one story I've read has a link to the actual report -- which doesn't appear to be correct. Anybody have a link to the actual report?

  • >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

  • where bob [at] aol [dot] com lives.

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