• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 2, 2004

In what might seem like a paradox to some, online offers to purchase prescription erectile dysfunction drug Viagra ranked atop AOL's "Top 10 Spam Email Subject Lines" of 2003, but pornographic offers ranked near the bottom of the list at No. 9. Other top-ranking spam solicitations included offers for other prescription drugs, as well as online pharmacies (ranked No. 2) that sell them.

Offers to reduce the size of recipients' debt ranked third, while offers to increase the size of their anatomy (and "improve your sex life") ranked fourth. Online degrees (5th), lower mortgage rates (6th), lower insurance rates (7th), work-from-home (8th) and "as seen on Oprah" (10th) rounded out the top 10 spam subject lines detected by AOL, mainly from subscribers using its "Report Spam" button on the AOL service.

AOL, the nation's largest online service provider, said that despite the voluminous activity, AOL successfully blocked a half trillion spam messages from getting to its members in 2003.