Thank you for the reminder that I meant to add some of that context in the story (which I will do after finishing this comment). I've written several stories over the years about how the major email providers have erected various hurdles designed to increase the costs for spammers, most notably phone verification. However, much of the data I'm aware of on the topic of pricing is somewhat dated. Here's one study from 2011, which found Hotmail accounts were far cheaper than Gmail and others because they were basically way easier to register.Accounts Craigslist PVA 10 (4) $4.25
[§B.1] Gmail Accounts 6 (5) $0.07
Hotmail Accounts* 21 (12) $0.007
Facebook Accounts* 24 (10) $0.07
I doubt these prices are relevant today, apart from the continued price disparity between email providers.
Source:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sec11...
costco|2 years ago