Odd Fact Files

University of Cambridge computer security researcher Richard Clayton presented a paper at the recent Fifth Conference on Email and Anti-Spam showing that e-mail addresses beginning with the letters “A,” “M,” “S,” “R,” and “P” attracted about 40 percent junk mail, whereas addresses that start with the letters “Q,” “Y,” and “Z” brought in only 20 percent or less. The paper entitled “Do Zebras Get More Spam than Aardvarks" analyzed more than 550 million e-mail messages sent over the U.K.'s Demon Internet service during an eight-week period this year.

More: http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=this-spam-is-brought-to-you-by-the-2008-09-03&sc=rss