Environmental Factors Impacting Spam: An Initial Study

Spam is a source of serious concern for both e-mail users and Internet Service Providers (ISP). While prior research has focused on spam content and spam filtering techniques, this study focuses on country-level, macro-environmental conditions that facilitate spamming activity. Adopting a criminological perspective, this study draws upon the deviance-based theories of rational choice and routine activities to analyze the effects of scale, economic, and judicial factors on spamming activity. Analysis of archival data obtained from international organizations suggests that spamming is influenced by scale and economic factors, but not by judicial ones. The study contributes not only to a better understanding of spamming activity but also provides a foundation for future work on other related issues such as privacy and network security.