Anatomy of a spam
 

The problem as I see it is that spammers have themselves deluded into believing that what they are doing is moral, ethical, and the ONLY way to earn money. No, this isn't another rant about spam... that would be pointless. It is more a way to show those on the fence the insanity of the spammer's mindset.

Let's go through it together shall we?... I just received this spam 5 minutes ago....
Okay, so we've established the fact that the ONLY way to make money on the net is by spamming. Great, what the hell do I do with all these sponsor cheques that arrive every week from doing business the "other" way?
Continuing on..... Wait... there is a dangerous way of spamming??Wait, I don't get it. Why would I need to "bypass my ISP" if this is legal, moral, ethical and responsible???

And, what's this about "harvesting"?? I thought all the respectable trendy politically correct spammers were using double-opt-ins these days! Oh, so now he wants my *permission* to receive his spam. Wondering here why the spammer didn't just send me the booklet. Riight, like I haven't fallen for that one before. Nice touch though.

*scrolls through the rest of the spam shit to bottom*... I'm confused..... First the spammer says "we comply with PROPOSED LEGISLATION blah blah"........ proposed.... does that mean he believes there is no anti-spam legislation in place anywhere as yet? So, this spammer is telling me that he is a good spammer, a righteous spammer, because he is WILLINGLY complying with legislation that isn't even law yet, but only proposed?

And, how does one get removed from the list again? First he says I need to send him back an email with "remove-me@Hisemailaddress" in the subject line......... THEN he says to "click here" for removal..... THEN he says "this is a one-time mailing".... so why would I need to remove myself from his list if it's a one-time mailing??? These spammers are sure thorough, I'll give them that much.

I pray there will come a day when people like this guy get their basement door kicked in, followed by ten cops rushing in to confiscate their computers and arrest their sorry asses, and their parents given a stiff fine for letting their basement-dwelling offspring run amok on the net. A 2-year minimum sentence ought to keep them out of the hair of legitimate business people and teach them that there actually ARE other ways of making money online... ways that don't piss off a few million people per day.


And spare me the rationalization that "many of the top sponsors also spam" bullshit.... I am an affiliate of close to thirty of them, I have been around for over 4 and a half years now, and have rarely... rarely gotten an actual spam from any well-known programs. If you're going to try to defend spamming, know right now that you can go suck a rotten egg as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you.

oh please..

There is no way you could have read that with any degree if understanding.


Spare me punk.

Many of the top sponsors also spam

I hate spammers and would like to sodomize each and every one of them.

Thank you.

Good post CD:thumbsup I also got that same email, like 3 times so far today.......so much for the 1 time crap...LOLOL

only if the stupid ISP's got together and built a central block-list.. spammers would run out of proxies, open-relays and "bullet proof" servers in no time..

I think there's a HUGE difference between spamming and networking! If someone goes on a board and spams after 2 posts that's SPAM! If someone that posts on a regular basis has a new program, I truly believe they should use the board to broadcast this information! :2 cents:

Yup......we must all be on the same spam list.

On that note have you joined Tabloid cash yet?!? :1orglaugh :321GFY

woohoo!

How's this relate to the topic or the first post?

well, isnt he talking about email spam?

i agree that a one-time announcement from an estabilished webmaster should be considered a business opportunity.

None what so ever! I just wanted to post something on this fine Saturday afternoon! :thumbsup

I hate spammers... but Im not much into sodomy. Ill let you handle that part.

I think you missed the point od CD's post. Hes not talking about fools that announce their stuff on a message board. The point is about EMAIL spam....

HAHAHAHA
Yes, I have gotten that one about 4 times so far...SOMEONE has got to teach that guy the new math...4>1

dork nugget!

Dork nugget....... I like that.

A exit console is spam, imo. Unwanted advertising that ends up on your computer

Thus we all spam..:2 cents:

I'd like to find out where they live and go shit in their mailboxes daily

Why don't you guys get so worked up over telemarketers, junk snail mail, and door to door salesmen? What is it about email spam that turns you guys into internet fundamentlists?

cuz they hurt our business

How exactly?

They force me to sift through my email, trying to find out what's spam and what's legit, having to set yet another filter and delete yet another email. Takes about an hour of my time every day, in other words spam costs me money. You obviously either don't get as much spam as I do, or you earn a hell of a lot less per hour than I do, or you wouldn't ask such a totally and utterly retarded question

check sig

Because of the sheer mass volume of them......It pisses people off so much that they are in a bad mindset, and are less willing to pay for something now because they are pissed off......

Thats just 1 reason.

Why is it a retarded question? I get between 500-1,000 spam emails a day. So what? More than half get hit by my filters and the rest I delete. It may be annoying but that's it. I don't think it justifies the psychotic anti spam behaviour I see from people. That's what's retarded. As for the money bit, keep dreaming.

"Takes about an hour of my time every day, in other words spam costs me money."

do you spend one hour/day deleting spam? How many do you receive? 20.000? If it's that the case, why didn't you buy one of the software that get rids of it? Do they cost more than your time?

Rule #4 - Only spammers defend spam.

None of that software's infallible. I have McAfee Spamkiller running, and it catches a hell of a lot, but you still need to check every single message that comes in before you can set a permanent filter on it or allow it.

yep :)

and their attorneys.

Definetely spam costs money to organizations, but a webmaster complaining he cant filter his email in few seconds is a nonsense. Give me a break.

If people annoy me, I get angry...it's sort of logical.

Whatever man... I defend telemarketing, does that make me a telemarketer?

*sigh* I have even had them email me asking me to try and get them reinstated to programs, as I tell the sponsors that they are free to tell the spammer who sunk their sorry *sses.
Another sigh here, they seem to be increasing and yes, I do go back and see that their links are dead. I'll fight their sorry *sses until they bury me. And yep, I do mainstream too, but moreso the adult spammers.

I made a yahoo addy for my stepdaughter the other day... the next day I checked to see if she had written yet and there were 2 adult spams in it with the common remove, opted in, sorry if, and all that BS at the end. Yeah right.


KILL the b*st*rds. Our new state law will be way too fun!

No, but it does make you a bonehead. Defending those that annoy so many people is what's retarded.


it is an annoyance. It's not about how it's the same as junk email or telemarketers. Sometimes it's about how thousands of kids get adult spam in their inboxes. It's about how you get spam from someone who say's you *opted in* for it, yet your email was obviously harvested from your website without your consent, or your email address was sold without your knowledge. It's about having to fuck with spam filters so much that from time to time an important email get's nuked along with the shit. It's about spam having fake "removal" links that simply alert the spam-bot that this account is active, thus sending you 10 times more spam than before.

It's about assholes who think that breaking sponsor-rules is the way to fucking get ahead, then they come crying to the boards later when they've gotten caught and had their account deleted and NOT been paid.


I took the above spam apart to show guys like you why spammers aren't as fucking smart as they thinki they are, nor are we as stupid as they make us out to be. You want to be ridiculed and flamed on this fucking board?.... just keep defending spam.

:glugglug

One of the most basic gathering techniques is using software to extract those emails from the mail server, using combinations such as A through ZZZZZZ (6Z), and word lists. Keep in mind that A through ZZZZ (4Z) alone is approximately 450,000 addresses, and on a major ISP (such as shaw.ca), around 90% of them will be taken, and of those, deliverability will be 40% absolute minimum. We all know how difficult it is to get hold of a short username for any major service, such as Yahoo email. A quality word list of 1 million common usernames, dictionary words and nicknames can be compiled in under 30 minutes if you know where to look... university FTPs, online dictionaries, and similar sites. Such harvesting software can be had for as little as 100$, and I've seen usernames extracted from the mail servers at up to 500 per second...

http://www.hotlinkpro.com/media/spammer.jpg



That said, it's an important consideration when choosing a mail address for a child. One of the best methods is to choose a string of random words and numbers. Of course, kids whine because they want a "short and cool" looking username. It's a choice between giving them what they want or reducing the possibility of shit mail. miss567janet543@ yahoo.com for example is less likely to be harvested than five5@ yahoo.com :)

I don't get telemarketed 100 times a day. Direct mail marketing (in snail mail) actually saves trees, because the alternative in print media is to buy ad space in mass market magazines, whereas smart direct marketers send stuff to lists of people who are much more likely to respond positively than the average person buying a mass market publications. I haven't seen a door to door salesperson in years, if you don't count Girl Scouts selling cookies, and I don't mind them (and, please, no CP jokes).

i no rely completely on cell phones for all voice communication. my old telephone 'hardline' is for my fax.

has anyone received any cell phone telemarketing? i am wondering when that will finally begin...

Hey Unseen, I would never defend a magazine if I were you. I worked for on for 3 years and let me tell you. They could careless how many subscriptions they have or how many are actually sold on the stand. They only care about the advertising space in the mag. That is the ONLY place they make money. The one I worked for was printing a mag for like 1.50 or 2 dollars and selling them for 3.99. So how do you think that they made the money??

They are as bad or worse when it come to advertising. And how many times have you gone to a news stand and picked up a mag to have 4 or more ad's drop out?? I really dont think that you can even find any mag with more than 6 articles in them, and if you do they start on page 21 and end up 200 pages later being divided by ad's..


There was even a study that said that we recieve ( see or read ) more advertising in one day, than someone's entire life in the 1950's

This is an advertising world. Just look at the signs the next time you go out.

As for e-mail spam, one day we will see what happens. But I really dont think that it will ever stop.

Dear Fellow Networker,

Let's get this straight, the only way you can make money on
the Web...Bulk E-mail. Legal, ethical, and responsible Bulk
E-mail (not spamming) can make you rich! It applies whether
you're an Australian, Asian, European or American.

Bulk Email Is Not Spam.....The Law says so. Only fear keeps
you from getting FREE, TARGETED LEADS at will.


-----------------

I got that same fucking email spam also. And it was actually in my inbox, not my spam folder. I bet that spammer makes bank.

Sure he will. There are a flock of sheeple out there who will eat that shit up with a spoon because they aren't smart enough to know better.

ahahahahahahaaa