How the Spam Industry is Sustained 371
mOoZik writes "The BBC has an interesting article about spam and why it's still around. According to a survey, nearly 1/3 of users have clicked on spam messages and 1/10 have bought products advertised therein. "If no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn't buy products sold in this way, then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs.""
Re:1 in 10 slashdotters? (Score:3, Informative)
Regardless, I haven't bought anything from spam. Even if something interestd me, I would be worried about getting ripped off. That said, nothing so far has. Yes, not even "enlargement" offers.
Longevity of spammers != "clicking" in emails (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Stats breakdown via country (Score:3, Informative)
Re:That's fucken it. (Score:5, Informative)
It's very true (Score:5, Informative)
producttestpanel.com is a good example. Spams for discount cruises from travel companies. Spam for free movie tickets (yes, I worked for the company that did that!) and spam for other free/discount products. It's not all porn & pills. in fact, the spammers I worked for adamantly refused to send out mails for porn or pills, but "$50 Gift Cards!" and "Try our coffee samples!" were ok.
This is a *huge industry* - some of these companies were sending us checks for $60,000 per month to blast out emails.
CAN-SPAM definitely has NOT helped. I believe that it has made the problem much worse, and it's just going to get worse until that POS law is repealed.
Re:Stats breakdown via country (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sigh... (Score:2, Informative)
In Germany, that's what Politics and History classes are for. Saying "you are bad because your parents were bad because their parents killed thirty million people" repeatedly while shoving information material about the NSDAP down the students' throats is a pretty good way to create people who distrust politicians, themselves and everyone else.
One of the things everyone here who isn't extremely dense learns in school is that people, once there are enough of them and they are sufficiently happy and/or indoctrinated, are like sheep. Oh, and that it's easy to gain majority support for a violent regime by giving the people food and work when both are rare.
The Federal Republic of Germany - mass-producing cynics since 1948. We would be proud about it, but we outlawed national pride, so meh.
I met a spam customer once (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Dividing by zero continues (Score:3, Informative)
Your post advocates a
(x) technical ( ) legislative (x) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
(x) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
(x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money
( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
(x) Users of email will not put up with it
(x) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Requires too much cooperation from spammers
(x) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
(x) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers
( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists
(x) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
Mortgage spam economics are little different (Score:5, Informative)
In the course of my pre-suit investigation, I did several canary traps [wikipedia.org]. Just one response to one piece of spam resulted in calls from over 40 mortgage brokers. These brokers had paid between $30 and $50 dollars for that lead. They had purchased it from a "lead generator" company who had paid between $20 and $30 dollars, and these companies had in turn bought it from another lead generator company! And I haven't even reached the actual spammer yet.
So, one response to one piece of spam funded an entire chain of companies selling leads, generating well over $1000 in income for various persons. The consumer had parted with no cash...
Re:worrying, or just wanting? (Score:2, Informative)
Ever heard of kegel exercizes? I've known women who have given birth that are tighter than some "virgins", just because they know they have muscles down there that can be used to heighten the experience for both parties.
Why should all that fall on the man, eh? Why should we eat pills and stretch it and even operate it just to get it bigger and better? But yes, I agree with you that a man has the right to "wish"... if he is so inclined.
Just. Stop. TRYING.
Nah, I'm pretty satisfied with my rather small pecker, myself. And so are the people I've shared it with... No reason to wish for a bigger lizard just because you have a lacking love-life... trust me, thats not because of the one-eyed trouser snake. Thats because of YOU.
Re:That's fucken it. (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, several other microcontrollers had similar instructions - they activate the pull-ups and pull-downs in the IO ports at the same time, thus shorting the power rails through the IO port.
This can be relied upon to release all the magic smoke that powers the processor.
Re:That's fucken it. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Dividing by zero continues (Score:3, Informative)
Posted by the phone.. "Never buy anything from anyone that calls you. It may be a fraud."
Posted by the computer.. "Never buy from anyone that mails you. It's probably a fraud."
If you want something, search it out. Find the reputable dealers. The real suppliers are in the yellow pages or can be found with a Google search. Don't buy anything from an unknown supplier without finding out about the BBB complaints and web sucks sites. I saved my wife from a Ramada Plaza vacation disaster offer in the mail by a quick google search for compaints. There were many and a few class action lawsuits. The company does have a reputation. A bad one. No reputation at all is a bad sign. Might be a new shell. Look for a good reputation. An occasional unhappy consumer is normal. Not every company will refund triple the cost and have the manager shot, so not every consumer will be happy.