Behind The "Work-At-Home" Street Spam Signs

Sabalon writes: "If you live almost anywhere in the U.S. then you have probably seen tons of the 'Make thousands working at home' signs tacked up almost everywhere. Cockeyed.com has an interesting story of one persons quest to uncover the source behind all this money just waiting to be made, the company behind it (or not behind it for legal reasons), and an oversaturated market." Spam, just another medium.

Comments

Also

[RumGunner]

While you're working at home, make sure to lose those extra, unsightly pounds! Burn the fat away!

Re:Also

[the Man in Black]

While you're working at home, make sure to lose those extra, unsightly pounds! Burn the fat away!

And add 1-3 inches to your penis!

Re:Also

[connorbd]

Because otherwise you won't be of interest to all those live nude wet teenage lesbo sluts.

/Brian

Re:Also

[knewman_1971]

Actually, I'd love to make hundreds of thousands of dollars while working from home, shedding unsightly pounds, making my penis 2-3 inches longer, and popping cheap viagra that I ordered from Canada!

Unfortunately, I'm too busy watching my bank account for the 1.2 million dollars the Nigerian ex-politician promised me in exchange for parking twenty million for a few weeks!

what mystery?

[macsox]

here in the south bay, the 'make thousands from home' people appear to be paying people to put up thousands of 'lose 30 pounds in 30 days' signs.

now those are a mystery.

Re:what mystery?

[istartedi]

I have been meaning to post parody signs, but I'm too lazy to do it. I was going to post: "Lose 30 dollars in 30 days, gauranteed. Call 1-800-FAT-SCAM". Would somebody please do this for me?

Re:what mystery?

[curunir]

30 pounds is actually $43.16 at today's exchange rate...their scam is better.

Re:what mystery?

[Falcula]

Around here there are tons (heh) of handwritten signs posted on corners and at freeway offramps that say, "I lost 30 pounds".

I've always wanted to go down a little farther and put up one that says "Found, 30 pounds. To claim email ....".

But, alas, I also am too lazy.

Anti-spam

[legLess]

Here in Portland OR many people have taken up anti-spam measures. In Southeast Portland these signs don't last long before being torn down or, even better, defaced. A group has made giant stickers saying, "I AM UGLY LITTER" and pasted them over these "work from home/lose weight now" things. Very cool.

Off-topic, billboard defacing is quite a sport here. You may have seen a March of Dimes billboard feature Daisy Fuentes and the tagline, "Daisy takes folic acid. Do you?" The "folic" has been blacked out on many of these :)

Off-off-topic, Kate Moss was featured on a billboard for milk some years ago, when she was doing the Calvin Klein "Obsession" ads. There was a huge photo of her with a white milk "moustache" and the tagline, "Calcium. It's my obsession." The following letters were paint-bombed out on several of them - "Cal" & "i" - needless to say, they were replaced pretty fast.

Re:Anti-spam

[slow_flight]

I've always wanted to put 'Cli' stickers in front of Taurus on those ugly, ugly Fords.

Re:Anti-spam

[ArsonSmith]

in Mesa Arizona there is a huge "Bank of America" building (well huge compared to the rest of the buildings around it) for about a month the sign visable from 10-12 miles around the city had "Bank o" lights burned out. So the highest sign in all the city at night light up bright as "f America"

I thought it was funny anyway.

Re:Anti-spam

[dmr]

Two summers back, there were a few lights out at the Somerville hospital (semi-urban Boston), and their large sign read

"Somerville Ho"

No wonder the snooty locals call the town Slummerville.

Re:Anti-spam

[Inthewire]

On the side of a building in Austin (across the parking lot from the West Campus 711) was an ad for the Marines - a head shot of a tough looking guy in his blues, with "The change is forever" underneath. Someone had colored the eyes in white, so he looked like some sort of zombie. It was beautiful.

Re:Anti-spam

[WinDoze]

Shell Station, Route 1 southbound, Peabody (next to what used to be the Towne Line House, it's something esle now, I forget what). I swear for almost a year in the early 90's the "S" was burned out. Big giant glowing "HELL" hanging over the highway. We used to sing "Highway to Hell" every time we drove past.

Re:Anti-spam

[ArsonSmith]

shell tation? that doesn't make any sense?

Ork from Home

[ArsSineArtificio]

Here in Columbus, somebody has methodically gone to every one of these signs and cut away the 'W' in 'WORK FROM HOME'.

I figure maybe Saruman's hiring, or they have some vacancies in those endless Warhammer armies.

Re:Here's page 2

[ziriyab]

My dad's a drug dealer. We make lots of money, and that's just with 2 hrs a day. Year before last we made $3,000,000.00, because so many people have been victimized by my dad.

Have fun with your mom and her ill-gotten gains

work at home the distributed.net way...

[Nugget]

BovineOne came up with this sign and this sign as a more modern alternative for all the work-at-home types out there.

Work at home the distributed.net way.

Mystery Solved!!!

[4of12]

I lost 30 lbs in 30 days for 30 dollars! Ask me how!

Step 1: Assemble a surgical scapel and an industrial shop vac.

Step 2: [You don't really want to know. You can guess.]

Re:I don't know about you...

[PD]

Dianetics?

Re:I don't know about you...

[tps12]

Here in Edmonton, there is an interesting solution. Along the Whyte Avenue area where there's tons of pedestrian traffic, there are specific posting poles. They're cut down telephone poles there specificly for the purpose of posting flyers/ads. There's also the new decorative lightposts that were put up that they've asked people to not post on. Actually seems to be working fairly well..

Cutting down the telephone poles did turn out to be a little short-sighted. It turns out that Edmonton businesses had relied heavily on communication, much of which took place over phone lines either as normal voice conversations or as Internet traffic.

Nah, those are no mystery

[sheetsda]

Those are legit. You lose 30 pounds in 30 days by walking your ass all over town hanging more of the damn signs.

Re:Killing Street Spam

[British]

Try and catch the spammers in the act. If you see them photograph them. Get pictures of them posting signs. Get their license plates. Get their faces. Call the cops and tell them what you're doing & where you are. Also call your local paper or radio station and tell them you've got some of these folks in front of you, would they like the story?

So you propose getting all Church of Scientology on their asses? :)

Re:site down, mirror

[Golias]

Better yet, take the signs down as you find them, label each one with a sticker saying "This Herbalife advertisement was posted illegally on the corner of [location] on [date]."

Once you have gathered about 200 or so, get some billboard plaster and glue them all to the front of Herbalife's corporate headquarters. :)

Step 3

[sulli]

PROFIT !!!

These spam signs are hideous!!

[cporter]

I hate these street signs! They're everywhere! Telling you what to do! "Yield" and "Stop" and "Do Not Enter" and "No Left Turn"!

When is someone going to do something about this plague of spam?

Re:Here's Page 3

[Art Tatum]

What is this, a group project?

Re:what mystery? (Lose weight now!)

[TClevenger]

"I saw one of those bumper stickers that said, 'Lose weight now. Ask me how.' So I asked him how. He said, 'Go on a diet, you fat pig.'"

-Bob Zany

In a related matter

[Fear the Clam]

This reminds me of TheSpark's Fat Project, in which, inspired by one of those signs, the author gets two people to try to gain 30 pounds in 30 days. Worth a read.

Re:I don't know about you...

[nathanm]

Someone here in Minneapolis made stickers that say "SCAM," and posts them over the last 4 digits of the phone number.

Posting the signs on utility poles is illegal in the first place, but rarely enforced.