Spam

[gilana]

Here's what I don't get.

They do what they can to trick you into reading the message with subject lines about your bank account and hi from an old friend.

The contents are full of intentional misspellings in an attempt to foil spam-catchers.

So do they think that if the message does escape both my mechanical and organic spam-filters, that if I open it and read it, I'm suddenly going to decide "Why yes, come to think of it, I *do* want to e''nlarge my p''enis! What the heck!" Or is it more, "Wow, they went to all that effort just to reach me... I really owe them something. Sure, here's my bank account number."

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i don't know. i wonder how much spam is an attempt to verify addresses for other spammers (web bugs, etc).

although if it's nearly free to send, it really doesn't take much response to make it profitable, tho.

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

The sad part is that only like .0001% of people respond to that spam...but that's enough income for it to be profitable.

Although I have also heard that porn-site spam has a significantly higher response rate.

[lordfeepness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what vanguardcdk said. The scary part is, if they weren't making money off this, they wouldn't be doing it!

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

oh, there must be a few guys out there who get that and think, "weeeeeell, my penis IS a bit on the small side..."

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

What scares me are the people who think, hey this stock is being promoted by spam..it must be good!

[bismuthobsidian.livejournal.com]

My favorite is the one I get nearly everyday from HOrnEYHouswife. Even if there were a housewife out there who was emailing me randomly because her, "husband can't satisfy me anymore", then her screen name would NOT be HOrnEYHousewife!!! I mean, get some creativity people!

Really, I am flattered though...

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

What makes even less sense to me are the ones that do not refer to penis enlargers or horny housewives or bank accounts at all. They are just random words put together in some non-sensical spam poetry. I don't get what they are trying to accomplish. You seriously can't even tell what the ad is for. Are they trying to confuse people enough so that they respond?

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I think what you're seeing is just the text that's included to fool the spam filters. The spam itself is typically on an image, so spam filters don't see it. Either your email client isn't displaying included images, or the spammer forgot to include one.

[spatch]

I am fascinated and amused by fax spam that we get. Mostly amused when we get the "Sell your company QUICK to us!" fax on top of the "Take a trip to Mexico!" fax. Yeah, if I had to quickly dump a company, that'd probably be my business plan.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

[she-ragroupie.livejournal.com]

Oh...so you're not supposed to give them your bank account number?

[gilana]

You didn't mail them your bank card along with the PIN, too, did you? Because I think you're going to want those to buy this bridge I have...