Please explain spam

[Gail]

I was gone over the weekend.

When I checked my mail, there were 41 new messages; 40 of them spam.

Thank goodness I have MailWasher, and was able to click the whole lot of them away without reading them in a matter of seconds. (For those who haven't seen this program, it lists sender's addresses, "blacklists," deletes and supposedly bounces undesirable messages back to the point of origin; of course, few of them actually do get bounced, since so many of these e-mail addresses are forged or otherwise invalid.

But I've got to wonder... what's the whole purpose here? Are there people out there who see messages from addresses like ricyglrtyuy@friction.net or gyectx@lycos.com who really think, "Hey, what a great offer! I'll have to buy that!" Or the messages which are prefaced with nonsense... why would anyone actually click on their links when it's so obvious they're skirting filtering systems to get to you. Do you think, "Gee, I admire this guy's resourcefulness at getting past the my spam detector? I think I'll pay him money?"

Obviously, someone out there must find spam profitable, otherwise they wouldn't do it. Or is most of it strictly malicious?

Thoughts?

[tbb113]

I think its the same mind set as mass mailings through snail mail. If you shoot enough bullets at a target, some will hit their mark :)

[SandyM]

Originally posted by Gail
But I've got to wonder... what's the whole purpose here?


I'd love to know myself, Gail. I went for months without spam after getting a new computer - I thought I was finally rid of it. Now, of course, 90% of the mail I get is spam. I never, ever use my primary e-mail address to make purchases or register for anything. It's puzzling, it's infuriating, but I've found no way around it.

I've heard that if you reply to their "click here to unsubscribe" instructions, you're actually only verifying to them that you have a valid e-mail address, and it gets worse.

What I do is put the cursor over the known spam to highlight it, and then hold down the Shift key while pressing Delete. It deletes the note from the system altogether (rather than dumping it in your Deleted folder). I use Microsoft Outlook Express at home, but this also works in Outlook (because that's what I use at work).

Like you, I find it hard to believe that people actually go to a pop-up ad site to find out how to enlarge (or shrink) any part of their body. But perhaps they're out there, somewhere...... :o :rolleyes: ;)

[gertdog]

Consumer Reports has a big report on Internet security and spam in the current issue. Their survey found that about 3% of consumers have purchased a product or service advertised in spam e-mail, which sounds low but translates into millions of purchases. So that return rate must be worthwhile for the spammers.

They also found that some ISPs are better than others at filtering out spam for their customers. I never got a single spam message at my verizon.net address in the two years I had it, even though I used it for online purchases etc.; my cornell.edu address gets hundreds of junk messages a day.

The article also rates anti-spam programs- performance depends largely on the amount of errors you're willing to tolerate (real mail mistakenly deleted as spam, and spam mistakenly allowed into your mailbox).

Sandy, Consumer Reports does say you should never click an "unsubscribe" link.

[Beth H]

I've heard that if you reply to their "click here to unsubscribe" instructions, you're actually only verifying to them that you have a valid e-mail address, and it gets worse.

Yes - this is absolutely true. Never respond to spam.

We also use the Mailwasher program and it has cut back on our spam, although it is not eliminated completely.

[Escher]

There are lots of websites you can deliberately enter someone else's email address into to intentionally flood them w/ spam. One can effectively "kill" addresses this way.

http://atypically.net/smilies/mischief.gif

Besides, if you have your address even passively listed on the web.... say, A MESSAGE BOARD!!, web spiders will crawl around and pick them up, too.

[Gail]

Don't your security settings have something to do with it, too?

I've always been meticulous about deleting cookies, use a couple of spyware filtering programs, empty my cache and virtually always use a secondary or terciary e-mail address when I MUST one on line. I'm noticing that it's only this past week that I'm suddenly getting hit hard-- coincidentally, I'd been kind of lax about all the above the week before it happened.

...not a big deal with the Mailwasher-- I'm just curious as to the why of the whole thing. It's just so hard to believe someone would waste his or her time looking into an offer which comes from an obviously bogus address. I mean, wouldn't that be a tip-off that you're not dealing with the most reputable of sources?

[Escher]

A certain quote by David Hannum comes to mind...oft ironically attributed to P.T. Barnum.

[gertdog]

Plenty of suckers out there... and add to this that some spam does carry legitimate offers; it's the delivery mechanism that's irritating. So not all spam offers are scams, if that makes sense. And in addition to the suckers in pursuit of a bargain (or porn or body enhancement) are the inattentive and naive folks who just click on a link because it's there.

[Escher]

Although, I did get my cable tv descrambler through a spam....

I guess I'm part of the problem, eh?

[gertdog]

Originally posted by Escher

I guess I'm part of the problem, eh?

Aren't you always? :p

[schuh]

Originally posted by gertdog
Consumer Reports has a big report on Internet security and spam in the current issue. Their survey found that about 3% of consumers have purchased a product or service advertised in spam e-mail, which sounds low but translates into millions of purchases. So that return rate must be worthwhile for the spammers.


Having worked in advertising, I can tell you that a good response for direct mail is 2-3%. So it sounds like spam is about as effective as direct mail -- and far cheaper to do (no printing, postage, etc.) Hence the proliferation of spam.

[Ralph]

Originally posted by schuh


Having worked in advertising, I can tell you that a good response for direct mail is 2-3%. So it sounds like spam is about as effective as direct mail -- and far cheaper to do (no printing, postage, etc.) Hence the proliferation of spam.

Spam is also much cheaper (virtually cost-free) and it's sent to literally millions more recipients than direct mail.

I agree with all the prior comments. As the Consumer Reports article mentions, there are just enough respondants to a spam selling something (perhaps legit, as gertdog) to make it worthwhile/profitable.

Bottom line, NEVER click the unsubscribe link unless you are not 100, but 1000% sure the mail/spam is from a legitimate site.

[MrsReber]

I hate spam. I get several messages each day that warn me of the explicit nature of the message. DH is under the impression that I must visit x rated sites to get this type of mail in my inbox. :rolleyes: I don't buy anything through these offers. If I don't know who sent the email, I delete it.

I like the sound of the Mailwasher, though. It's such a pain to have to delete so many messages each time I log on.

[Gilgamesh37]

A tinned spiced ham product introduced by Hormel in 1937, prevalent in armed forces rations in several wars, butt of endless jokes, subject of one of Monthy Python's best-loved skits, and inexplicably popular in Hawaii?

:D

[MrsReber]

Gil, I was resisting that same urge :D !

[Escher]

Take note: Escher is posting in a food-related thread!

http://www.cdp181.demon.co.uk/images/spam.jpg

[Gail]

Ugh. What putrid memories that photo brought back...

I used to work with a person who ADORED the edible Spam. She'd make it for lunch, warm it up in the microwave and the whole office would reek for hours.