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Image based spam on the rise

Posted by David Greiner on August 10, 2006

I've seen quite a few mentions about the growing problem of image based spam on the web and unfortunately in my inbox of late. I knew image-based spam was getting worse, but this statistic in a recent USA Today article blew me away:

Image-based spam accounts for 21% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005.

It's only a matter of time before spam content filters respond by coming down even harder on predominantly image based HTML emails. With the difficulties of coding a consistent design across all email environments, it's little surprise that some designers are still opting for an image-heavy approach to their emails. With the continued popularity of email clients turning off remote images by default, and the continual tightening of content filtering rules, this just isn't an option any more.

This is another notch in the growing list of reasons why you should avoid heavy use of images in your HTML email designs.

1 comments so far

Daniel Reeders

wrote on August 17, 2006 10:11 AM

Designers make heavy use of images in e-mails because clients simply don't understand the very concept of a technical constraint on their use.

Designer says: "If I use images they won't always appear."
Client hears: "Mmf M mff mmfmf mmmf ffm'f mfmmff mmfmfm."

So you can serve up a low-image, accessible, text and colours design, and they'll just keep rejecting it until you give them an image-heavy, inaccessible, preview window-unfriendly design, and then they'll say you "finally get it".

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