"Not Big Enough?" "We Can Get You A Bigger Mortgage!" "Free XXX MPGs!" "Free Mortgage Quotes!" "Impotent? Try Viagra!" "Bankrupt? We'll Get You In!"

Ban Spam -- and not just the porn.

Mortgage spam generates almost as much contempt as pornographic spam and unsolicited real estate email isn't far behind on the Spam-I-Hate-Most meter.

A Harris Poll of 2,221 adults conducted online by Harris Interactive between November 22 and December 2, 2002 found that most find spam obnoxious enough to want it to be outlawed and they are particularly annoyed by mortgage and real estate spam, among other varieties of the unsavory electronic missives.

Spam is electronic junk mail -- unsolicited direct marketing sent via email. The escalating problem affects ISPs, corporate enterprises and consumers, overloading email servers and email boxes with unwanted pitches ranging from pornographic enticements and investment "deals" to credit repair comeons and too-good-to-be-true mortgage offers -- regardless of your credit standing.

It's so pervasive it's given rise to a cottage industry of spam exterminators -- software publishers who offer products to redirect spam into the electronic circular file before it reaches your want-to-read email folder. Virus carrying email also often masquerades as spam. InternetNews.com reports that industry analysts say spam accounts for as much as 50 percent of an ISP's email traffic flow.

Among the top five worst offenders in terms of volume in 2002, according to Brightmail, Inc., a San Francisco-based anti-spam company, No. 3 was "Refinancing? Get a FREE Quote on Any Mortgage Loan Program". The electronic ad is considered a "spam classic" for its persistence, volume and sheer dribble.

In the Harris poll, mortgage spam was second only to pornographic email solicitations, followed by investments, real estate, software and computers as the top spam irritants survey respondents deleted with disdain.

Industry experts have attributed the mortgage and real estate spamming deluge to the healthy home finance, refinance and real estate markets -- which doesn't explain why investments was so high on the hate list, given the weak stock market.

National Association of Realtors spokesman Walter Molony told CBS Market Watch's Andrea Coombes that spam isn't integral to the typical real estate brokerage's marketing model.

Some mortgage and real estate entities, however, have riled ISP subscribers enough to get their varieties of spam listed among the top four most foul types of electronic garbage.

According to the poll, spam in general is the most aggravating online headache.

Ninety-six percent of those polled said spam was annoying, 72 percent said inaccurate online information was a hair-puller, 52 percent were aggravated by waiting for screen draws, 43 percent were irritated by the time it took them to find information they needed, and 50 percent were bothered by how often they needed to go outside the home to find help to make their computer system work.

Among those surveyed, 80 percent found spamming very annoying, up from 49 percent two and a half years ago. The online mob is so hostile, 74 percent want it outlawed.

A diverse crowd wants spam banned -- 70 to 80 percent of all age groups, all income groups, both sexes, political parties and all races.

The poll suggests spam's days are numbered and that it will go the way of unsolicited faxes.

Not soon enough.

Published: January 10, 2003

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.