22 Astonishing Email Spam Statistics

• In 2018 there were 3.9 billion email users and the number is going to reach 4.3 billion in 2022. 
• In 2017 alone, more than 269 billion emails were sent/received daily and this number is expected to grow to 333 billion daily emails in 2022.
• For each $1 you invest in email marketing will yield you an ROI of $32 on average. 
• 81% of the small and medium scale businesses still rely on email for customer acquisition. 
• 80% of the small and medium scale businesses rely on email for customer retention. 
• The welcome email open rate on average is over 82%.
• Emails with personalized subject lines can increase the open rate by 50%
• The addition of videos can increase click rates by 300%.
• The average number of emails that an American worker -? will reach 126 by the end of 2019. 
• 82% of American workers check their emails outside of regular business hours. 
• 87% of the marketers prefer to use email campaigns and 58% of them consider their efforts fruitful. 

1. More than 293 billion emails are sent every day.

(CampaignMonitor)

The number of sent and received emails daily has been steadily growing for the last few years. By the end of 2019, the number is expected to cross 293 billion emails a day. This number includes both business and consumer emails. According to Radicati, this number will cross 306 billion next year.

2. Email marketing offers more than 4400% ROI.

(OptinMonster)

This is just massive. That means that each dollar you invest in email marketing will bring you a return of $44.

Many people still use emails to find deals and go shopping. As per MarketingSherpa, more than 60% of the consumers tend to subscribe to the mailing list of their favorite brands for promotional messages or deals. Now, this is huge, especially if you compare it to only 20% of consumers who follow brands on social media.

3. More than 14.5 billion spammed emails are sent daily.

(Propeller)

According to Propeller, email spam is still at large.  More than 14.5 billion spam emails are sent daily in 2018. This is a global statistic and it certainly means that spammers of today have a lot to say.

4. 45% of all emails are spam.

(Propeller)

That’s almost half of all the email content that we see today on the internet! Only 55% of the content is authentic or legitimate. This goes to show that today’s spammers are working harder than ever. And 36% of the spam is some advertising.

5. Spam is costing businesses a jaw-dropping $20.5 billion annually.

(Propeller)

A research conducted by Radicati indicates that spam cost business $20.5 billion across the globe in 2012. In the year 2018, a study has estimated that this amount will expand to $257 billion per annum in the coming years.

6. More than 80,000 people are falling victims of email spam every day.

(GetCyberSafe)

More than 800,000 links get the click.  More than 10% of them are tricked into clicking on a phishing link. Another 10% or 80,000 fall victim and share their info daily. It results in stolen identities, credit card frauds, financial loss, and various other internet scams.

7. In the US, there are 2897 live spam issues.

(Spamhaus)

The exact number of US live spam is changing all the time. However, as of November 2nd, 2019, the number was 2897. China is leading the way with 3365 at the moment, but the US was on top with 3402 live spam issues on January 18th, 2018, as reported by the SBL database.

8. Mobile email statistics – you need to add stats here

(BlueCorona)

Three out of five consumers say that they check their emails using mobile phones. More than 75% of Americans say that they check emails on their smartphones. In 2017, 61% of email opening took place on mobile devices. Only 15% took place on desktop and only 24% in a webmail client.

9. Germany gets the most spam emails.

(Securelist)

Germany is on top with more than 11% of the malicious mailshots targeted towards the country.   Second comes Vietnam with 6%, followed by Russia with 5%.

10. Women are more susceptible to marketing emails

(DisruptiveAdvertising)

Men and women both tend to click on marketing emails when checking their email on a desktop. However, men are more likely to open marketing emails from their phones and women – from their tablets.

11. China is the top email spammer in 2019.

(Securelist)

According to Securelist, China is a top spammer with 15% of the spam originating from this country. The US is on the second pot with 12% spam and Russia is on the third spot with 6% spam.

12. Over 36% of the spam emails are for advertising something.

(Propeller)

More than 36% of the spam is based on some advertising. This can include any sales promotion that the user has not subscribed to.

13. Click-bait for clicking malware -?

(BleepingComputer)

More than 50% of users fall for the click-bait, although they know about the risks associated with clicking on the malware.

Blackmail Email Scams

Blackmail email scams are on the rise as well. More and more people are getting emails from anonymous people about having their personal information. In such cases, the spammers ask for money – particularly in Bitcoin – or threaten to release the information online or with the contacts and associated with the target individual.

14. Millions and millions of emails have been pawned until now.

(Wikipedia)

There have been millions and millions of email addresses that have been pawned over the years and there is no exact number available. Every now and then, when a data breach occurs, millions of users get affected by it.

15. Biggest data breaches and emails pawned in numbers

(Wikipedia)

A number of data breaches have occurred in the past few years. In July 2015, Ashley Madison, a dating service, had a data breach that influenced 30 million users.

In October 2015, 000webhost had a data breach that affected 13.5 million users. November 2015 saw  Skrill and Neteller’s data breaches, which impacted 4.2 million and 3.6 million users, respectively. November 2015 also saw the data breach of VTech,  affecting 5 million users and the list continues.

16. What percentage of spam email converts?

(Group-Mail)

According to a recent study, only 1 out of 12,500,000 spam emails get converted into sales. This means that the spam conversion on average is 0.00001%.

17. How many email spammers make per annum?

(OrganicWeb)

The spammers are profiting by a minimum of $65 million per year. They are encouraged to send more emails as an increased volume means more money.

18. Some stats on how they make money

(OrganicWeb)

Spam is all about the numbers. If a spam email is sent to a million email addresses, it will only get a response from about three people. This means that the response rate is only 0.00003%. If the emails are sent to billions of people, then the response rate will increase significantly. And if each response is worth $20, then spammers will be earning more than $180,000 daily.

19.How many spam emails are reported in the UK?

(Spamhaus)

The number of spam reports in the UK is 461 as of November 2nd, 2019.

20. How many spam emails are reported in the USA?

(Spamhaus)

The number of spam reports in the USA is 2559 as of November 2nd, 2019.

21. Apple IDs are most frequently targeted for phishing emails.

(Propeller)

Apple IDs are very famous for this. A study conducted by 2017 HFR by Proofpoint. 25% of all phishing scams focus on Apple IDs, with Microsoft Outlook on 2nd spot with 17% and Google Drive on 3rd spot with 12.9%.

22. Dropbox users are one of the 10 most targeted platforms – 4.8% of all phishing attempts in 2016.

(Propeller)

The most effective of all the phishing scams occur on Dropbox. The click rate was 13.6% among Dropbox users.

23. Spam email subject lines

The most common things about spam email subject lines are:

• Generic subject line
• Leaving any pre-header text 
• Not leveraging the urgency
• Shouting in the subject line 
• Using special characters
• Having spammy words 
• One word subjects
• Overusing emojis

Spammy words include the likes of: 

• Do you like/have/want?
• All-natural
• Affordable
• Act now
• Order now
• Amazing stuff
• Credit
• Guarantee
• Cash Bonus
• Compare rates
• Home-based
• Incredible deal
• Limited-time offer
• Increase sales
• Info you requested
• Any phrase with “free” in it
• Cheap
• No investment
• Obligation
• Promise
• Thousands 

• Fake invoices

One of the most common phishing attacks is made using fake invoices. These emails state that you or your company owe some amount based on the attached invoice. The email increases the urgency by mentioning that some services will be discontinued.  

• Bills

Another way of spamming is by using utility bills instead of invoices. The urgency here is created by the threat to discontinue the utility service unless the bill is cleared. 

• Using Apple Products

Apple products have been involved in a number of spam emails. The reason is that Apple is a quality brand. Spammers hope that users won’t doubt the authenticity of the email, given that the company is very strict with its privacy and security matters. 

Email spam has been on the rise.  A large amount of data has been breached. Spammers are coming up with new kinds of techniques and methods to lure the users into the trap.  

So be mindful when you’re online. You don’t want your information to get into the hands of the wrong people. According to our email spam statistics, email usage numbers are increasing even with the popularity of social media. So email spamming is not going away!

The companies that rely on email spamming are earning a lot. The top spamming countries in the world are China and the US. Both individuals and businesses are at risk due to this spam and there is no stopping it. So be mindful and don’t fall for cheap tricks! Your privacy should come first.

Till next time! 

• CampaignMonitor
• OptinMonster
• Propeller
• GetCyberSafe
• Spamhaus
• BlueCorona
• Securelist
• DisruptiveAdvertising
• Securelist
• BleepingComputer
• Wikipedia
• Group-Mail
• OrganicWeb