Why Bill Gates Couldn't Win the War Against Spam

One of the dumber things Bill Gates ever did was pronounce, a few years ago, that he was going to eradicate spam.

He failed, and now spends his time working toward a more achievable goal -- wiping out global disease, poverty and hunger.

The problem with spam is that -- as much as this may pain legitimate direct marketers -- spamming is a bloody effective way of selling stuff. Or at least certain types of stuff.

It may surprise you to learn that new research from Internet security company Marshal reveals 29.1 percent of people have bought something from a spam e-mail. This is up from 20 percent when a similar survey was carried out in 2004.

The strong -- and growing -- pulling power of dodgy e-mails highlights what Marshal spokesman Oscar Marquez describes as spam's "inconvenient truth."

"Spam is commonly believed to attract very low response rates. Estimates indicate there are often fewer than 10 purchases made for every million spam messages sent," says Marquez.

"But most of these messages are blocked by spam filters. This means the actual response rates are much higher if you only count those e-mails that make it into a person's inbox."

It's estimated a staggering 150 billion spam messages are pumped out globally each day, and they now account for more than 85 percent of all e-mail.

The widely held belief that "regular" people don't buy from spam is a common misconception, says Marquez. "You have to consider the types of products people are buying. It's pirated software, knock-off watches, counterfeit designer goods, cheap drugs and prescription medicines, pornography and other adult material.