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Junkie Loves His Spam
VicPylon writes "Here is the reason we have to spend time and money on spam filters. This character actually responds to and buys from spam. I wonder if he is aware that he is supporting digital pollution?" I guess this proves that there really is something for everyone online.
Interesting they didn't give out his email address.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
There is only so much male enhancement products a man can buy.
They seem to be the only spam i've been getting lately. Maybe my wife is feeding them my email addresses...
This is why I'm not completly against Spam, but I wish they would clearly mark it so those who don't want it won't get it and this guy will.
Ah, I get it now. Those "enlarge your penis" spams really do work - if you respond to them, you're nothing but a big dick.
I've got some old junk around the house I could probably dress up in an ad. I should mail him, "Do not miss out on this opportunity! xcxzxczx"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This guy needs a better hobby than answering spam. Maybe he can practice dodging oncoming traffic.
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
People buy crap sold by infomercials.
You can sell anything to almost anybody.
An idiot is born everyday.
...my comment on the other thread. It seems there really are people out there who value their inbox being filled with mindless junk.
In a survey by MailShell, a San Francisco antispam company, 8% of respondents said they have bought products via spam. Spammers say that percentage is probably low because many people are too embarrassed to admit responding to spam.
Well, there you go. Far higher than I'd ever have imagined...and the spammers admit that replying to spam is embarrassing. Guess they realise a bad thing when they see it.
Although
Mr. Soto recently spent more than $100 on vitamins
you do have to question the man's ability to appreciate the value of a dollar. 100 bucks on vitamins? I'll go down the high street and get three bottles for 10, thank you very much.
That is a hell of lot of enlargement going on.
Imagine the size of his p*n*is... All new herbal med*icine*, add 6!!In*ches
Dear Mr. Soto,
I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
He must have the lowest mortgage rate ever.
Did I miss anything? I mean damn, how many different ways can you spell V!@G.RA???!
i'm a christian, and the only feeling i have towards him is not compassion, but wanting to beat some ever-living sense into him. sorry jc
vodka, straight up, thank you!
Nothing about his activites seemed very interesting until I read this part:
He says he purchased two pornography Web sites, again via spam, and ran them for a while, but then he decided they weren't worth the trouble and disabled them.
Spam that advertises buying and managing for porn sites? What?!
This guy's just as happy as if he had a brain, isn't he?
"I planned within my means and got a fixed rate mortgage, so where's MY bailout?" -cafepress
I wonder if he realizes that he is making life harder for everyone else. Most people that I talk to despise spam. Like the artical said, it wouldn't survive unless someone paid money for it. He might be getting enjoyment form it but he is causing other people pain.
I assume the reason they have what looks like a courtroom sketch of the guy accompanying the story rather than a photograph is because his enormous penis keeps blocking the camera.
Well this is somewhat related to the second, but I bet his Nigerian friend helped him bring in a few extra thousand a month.
# fuser -v
#
The problem I would have with buying *anything* from a spam email is the fact that the company has resorted to spam to pitch their wares. To me, it always smells of desperation and contempt for the customer.
In the current anti-spam climate, a company cannot use spam to market themselves and be seen as a professionally-run organisation.
Patriotism - the last resort of scoundrels.
If the guy wants to buy from spammers, let him. We have to fight spam from another angle, not by supressing people's rights to do stupid things.
How does a guy earning $40k per year have a 2 bedroom apartment in Midtown Manhattan?
According to the article it takes one buyer out of 15,000 e-mails sent in order to break even. If more people would buy from spam, they'd have to send out fewer e-mails to break even, right?
I'd be interested to see how often he pays for something he never receives...
I have discovered a truly marvelous
_45_ year old, _smoking_, _grandfathers_ with more discretionary income than sence.
Will make MILLIONS, boys! MILLIONS!
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
This guy likes to save money, and he reads his unsolicited email and then selectively buys from it. SO FUCKING WHAT? I like looking for used cds and books on amazon and for bargins on ebay. It's not like this guy is a hacker or a child pornographer or something. Why don't you people get a job and leave honest, hard working people be!
"It offered Newports -- his brand -- for $2.85 a pack, about a third of what he pays at a corner store near his home."
The man is paying $8.50 for a pack of Newports. I think that pretty much sums it up.
Right, but what was their n value? Where did they conduct the survey? Did they include a variable mix of people? Were their surveys limited to a particular geographic region or cultural group?
I can't seem to find the survey on MailShell...anybody having better luck? I did a domain search through Google but no luck.
Not challenging the accuracy of the survey outright, but it would certainly help to have a link.
i'm growing a pony tail now, and trying to imitate his ways. and i would urge everybody else to do the same. maybe some day we will all be as great as He is.
thank you.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I don't think so. This could very well be completely true. This guy is a habitual impulse buyer. He's addicted to buying stuff and it evidently gives him a thrill to do so.
I've known several people that were addicted to buying things like this, only they did it at the mall, or pawn shops, or thrift stores, etc. I had a friend who's parents bought stuff all the time. Their house was stacked high with junk they never used or even touched again after it was purchased. They literally had to move large piles of random things whenever they wanted to sit on the couch, eat at the table, or do most anything in the house.
If you're addicted to this extent, what better place to feed your addiction than the internet and specifically, your email box? There are thousands of things pitched to you every day (maybe every hour!) no matter what you're doing on the net.
Just like every other media outlet, it screams "YOU NEED MORE STUFF!"... but I digress. :-)
I believe the parent is referring to the "Make Penis Fast!" email, for those that haven't read it yet.
FREAK!!!
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
See this post on news.admin.net-abuse.email: Orlando Soto sells spamming tools to desperate webmasters. Funny he didn't mention that to the journalist...
Mr. Soto used to haunt rummage sales, thrift shops and flea markets, but he hurt his back in the mid-1990s, so he turned to the Internet.
... These kinds of activities are like crack cocain to certain types of buyers. My aunt used to make crafts that she would sell at the 4H fairs and craft festivals, and she would take me an my cousins to flea markets and rummage sales.
That sentence, quoted from the article, describes his entire interest in spam. There are 10 types of people who shop... those who go to flea markets, and those who don't.
Flea markets, rummage sales, garage sales, yard sales, thrift stores, salvation army stores, craft festivals, 4H fairs, county fairs, state fairs
For those of you who aren't connected, it's a way of life for some people.
And this guy, because he hurt his back, is merely doing the online version....
The Internet, and spam, is just providing an unfortunately convenient way for him to acquire these purchases.
The article explains that he used to hunt rummage sales, thift stores, and flea markets, then turned to the Internet after hurting his back. He buys on eBay, and via spam. Spam is just one part of his disease, and it made an interesting story. From the tour his wife gave of their apartment, it sounds like he doesn't need most of the stuff he buys--a typical symptom of hoarding.
Another symptom will be that he is unable to throw away things that he has purchased (like those boxes of vitamins), even if he doesn't need them or they are no longer of value.
OCD medication is usually ineffective for hoarding, but counseling can help.
At any rate, he does not respresent a typical email user, but at the same time, he is not alone. It is unfortunate, but there are people with these kinds of disorders out there, and they play right into the hands of spammers and telemarketers. The sad thing is when people take advantage of them.
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
I don't care how much spam he responds to.... it's still cheaper than a Ferrari
-Adam C. Greenfield
Unfortunately, since it said he's a grandfather, that means he's already reproduced and passed on his stupidity genes. :-(
This is what I truly feared would happen with spam. Every Sunday my grandmother actually looks forward to sifting through the hord of junk snail mail that comes to her house. Not that she doesn't have a life, just that her life is somehow enhanced by it :-(
Everyone, here's his contact info compliments of Superpages...
Orlando Soto
325 W 43rd St
New York, NY 10036
(212) 399 - 0626
I'll make one exception: if they add the "ADV: " to the subject line, then I may give them the benefit of the doubt.
The whole article seems a bit phony. Especially the use of the word "anti" by Mr. Soto. There is one group of people who are fond of using the word "anti" to describe those who dislike spam. I get a strong feeling that this is not just some innocent guy that likes to buy from spam, and his admission of spamming once before leaves me even more suspicious.
Beer wants to be free
It's almost a given that one day soon SPAM will be pretty much eliminated, or at the least, significantly diminished.
Now, go back in time to: Life Magazines and to older comic books - could there be one day in the future that sellers on eBay pay collector dollar for old Spamvertisements - just like they do for Wrigley's Gum ads, Coke ads, Life magazines, comic book ads?
I saw in someone's journal that they were collecting SPAM just for posterity sake - to get some good laughs when they were 75. Another was collecting them as a reference database for creating filters.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
This was on the front page of WSJ yesterday so I assume they did some fact checking on it. It wasn't buried in the back of the paper.
.NET co-workers to move to Java. I don't think so.
That said, my first reaction, is one I always have: why when an interesting topic comes up: why do I find only sarcastic/hopefully humorous comments get through my level 4 filter? Still waiting for an answer on that.
I read the article in paper and my reaction was that they did everyone a service by writing about such people. I have no idea why anyone would buy this stuff but the fact of the matter is that spammers wouldn't spam if they didn't make money from it. MS will only change the type of software they make when they don't make money from it. It's a simple, though perhaps unlikeable fact. For every piece of junk that clutters your tv screen, your mailbox or whatever there is a reason for it other than just to bother you (and me!). It's there because someone is making money from it and because someone, like the guy in article, actually buys it.
I don't think educating such buyers is a reasonable option. Sort of like educating the user of one OS to choose to go to another one. This afternoon I'm going to educate my
But the only way to solve a problem is to understand it. The more we understand people like this guy the more likely it is that someone can find a way to direct spam/bad commercials to them and not the rest of us. Maybe a Do Call Me list.
I hear all about connections between SPAM and organized crime. However, I don't see how SPAM is much different from other forms of information pollution, e.g., ads. For cleaning up email, there's Bayesian filtering. For the web, there's pop-up blockers. For TV, there's Tivo. And in each case the info-polluters have their counter measures.
:w
"Mr. Soto says he also has bought some adult DVDs and videos via spam, but never got around to marketing them.
Yeah right! I wonder if his wife believes him.
Decode these
If so much spam actually finds buyers, why don't any of these people honor opt-outs?
And if there's really people like Mr. Soto, what's the problem with actually having opt-in?
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Spammers employ many illegal methods. They forge headers, use other people's servers to send the spam, use other people's real addresses as the sender, they do brute force username dictionary attacks against mail servers, they lie about how they got your address or about your ability to be removed, and finally they sell fake and infringing products (Viagra is a trademark) and are full of frauds and scams. Those are all illegal, or at least they should be. Do you support those things? I doubt it. So how do you propose to only allow "good" spam while blocking this stuff?
The article shows him refusing a number of emails that are presented to him. So, while I tend to agree with you on the hoarding part, I think either it is not to a pathological degree -or it's a different pathology entirely.
He probably deletes his Inbox on a regular basis.
"Write to Mylene Mangalindan at mylene.mangalindan@wsj.com". Shall we?
I personally beleive that this is somewhat clear proof that marketing by e-mail can work, but only if it is taken in hand by honest companies who do not deal through an nigh-on anonymous mass-mailing scheme. Take a look at the statistics, and you will notice 8% of the respondents to a survey conducted asking whether or not they had bought anything through spam replied affirmatively, though spammers say that this number is higher due to the fact that most people having bought products through spam can not bear the embarassment of admitting it. Now if you reflect on those numbers, and consider that a lot of people delete spam as soon as they see some in their inbox, or use some kind of spam filter, you could perhaps come to a conclusion which may not be so far off the truth.
Let's suppose the companies which now sell their products through mass-mailing could come to some sort of agreement with e-mail services. This agreement would involve allowing the user to choose whether or not they would like to receive some offers from the company that has come to the agreement with the service. The e-mail service could choose to impose limits to the company, such as the number of e-mails sent and the products offered in the e-mails. As this feature would be an opt-in option, the user would be responsible for what comes through their inboxes. I think this kind of feature would actually benefit every party involved, as the e-mail service could really control what would be coming through to their users' inboxes, the users would know what to expect in their inboxes, and the companies could actually make more profit from this system. What I mean by this is, as most e-mail users would be expecting to receive their offers by e-mail, they would be the people who would be actually expected to buy what comes through. There would be more sales than there would be complaints and deletion. Last of all, this would of course benefit the people who would like to receive some honest, discounted offers by e-mail. The whole system would be completely legal.
In my opinion, this is how marketing by e-mail could actually be something that works, and that, at the end of the day, leaves both the sales companies, the e-mail services and the e-mail users satisfied.
"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect" -- Linus Torval
In the past, Mr. Soto says he has sent out spam himself, but he doesn't any more for fear of the increasing multitude of federal and state spam regulations now on the books.
it says and ask yourself what sort of person would be selling such a package of dodgy software.
From the article:
and the domain registration:People actually buy products advertised in spam! That's why spammers do it!
"he drew his sword Ringil that glittered like ice... and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds..."
He buys [snip] pharmaceuticals for himself.
I wonder what kind...
Mr. Soto says he also has bought some adult DVDs and videos via spam, but never got around to marketing them.
cUmc0\/ered h%0t dvdz!!! on1y u5ed 1nce!!! 51ightly 5t1cky.
Predictive text is shiv!
I did RTFA and I'm here to tell you this guy needs professional help. What a nutcase.
People that engage in this type of behavior on a regular basis have some sort of OCD problem.
I know a few people like this guy, they troll garage sales and flea markets and their houses are full to bursting with *shit*...
They have this vision that they are going to resell the crap at garage sales and flea markets and make a living. Truth is, they lose BIG every time they set up at a flea market. They spend ~$200 to set up a booth for the weekend and if they are really lucky they sell about $15 worth of the crap they collect.
At garage sales it just costs them the time to do it but they usually only bring in less than $50 for the trouble.
These people are chasing the brass ring but they never catch it. What a waste of time, effort and money..
Uh, /. is a big endeavor, taking time and money from the site's proprietors. It's free to you. I'd quit complaining about what they have to do to fund your entertainment. Really.
The whole thing stopped making sense when he complains of only getting 17 spams in one day.
The article then states, "He's the kind of person spammers love: a serial buyer."
If he were the kind of person spammers love, then why am I getting many times more spam and I've never bought anything via SPAM? I'm still just a potential sell, while he's the guaranteed one.
I call BS.
This is not my sig.
In the past, Mr. Soto says he has sent out spam himself, but he doesn't any more for fear of the increasing multitude of federal and state spam regulations now on the books.
The problem here is he doesn't comprehend and/or care that spam hurts consumers. This isn't just a hobby for him, it was a part-time business. People shouldn't dismiss him as some eccentric old man, there's no ambiguity here: he was previously an unlawful spammer and he encourages unlawful spammers. He is the problem.
Short of making it illegal to buy from unlawful spammers or public humiliation (I'm sure he will get plenty, now), I don't know of a way to get buyers to stop.
Someone asked if I had patched against MSBlast; I said yes, I installed Linux.
The Journal started using stippled portraits, or hedcuts in 1979. Apparently, they remind readers of currency or engraved stock certificates. Although the style can be approximated with image filters, the WSJ's hedcuts are hand drawn.
Spam isn't bad. I have to say I am delighted to receive spam and that it exists.
:)
If there wasn't spam, I wouldn't have a Bayesian filter..and nor would you. Im sure you would actually miss having one. I know I would, a Bayesian filter is a geeky thing to own. Do any of your non-PC literate friends have one? No. Of course not. They probably use hotmail.
So yeah, spam is great, I never actually read any, I just receieve it, in a nice packaged and quarantined form and it goes into my "spam" box.
long live Bayesian Spam Filters, and long live spam!
just my rather weird 0.02
We complain about the quality of our television programs ("I'm a TV Star, Get Me Out Of Here!", "Joe Millionaire", etc.), but they stay on the air because Joe Denomenator watches them. He doesn't watch "Babylon 5" or anything that makes him think. (A producer of Andromeda is reported to have left the show because the network wanted less story line and more action. It was "too hard" for Joe Denomenator to follow multi-show stories. Andromeda has been a mashed-potato show ever since.)
Other mass media has followed. In the checkout line we get tabloids shouting "Lose ten pounds in a week without getting off your sorry ass", and "Have better sex with whomever it is you are banging this week". The venerable TV Guide has become TV Gossip instead of a programming guide.
Big box stores filled with cheap imports smother smaller, local stores until they go out of business, leaving nothing but cheap imports available. Joe Denomenator doesn't want to pay $20 for a radio that will last for years, he wants to pay $10 for one that he'll have to replace in a month, because it is too much effort to keep track of the one he has for more than a month anyway.
Why would anyone think that the Internet would be different, after using it became a "right" for Joe Denomenator?
Soto, Orlando
325 W 43 St
MANHATTAN, NY 10036
212-399-0626
He's not in at the moment though.
superman runs linux
... of something a computer science professor once told me. It went something like, "You can write the best code in the world; design the best user interface and implement the strictest error catching, but you still can't keep the end user from being stupid."
user@host:/usr/bin$ whatis
java: nothing appropriate.
"Act now! Supplies are limitied, guranteed cure for hording! xyzyzzYz"
"For $19.99 you too can get this amazing cure..."
"OCD medication is useless to combat this problem."
"But, our solusion! 398293 is sure to work."
"Act, now and get abillity to throw your trash out too..."
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
We can set up some standard place for people like this guy -- say, a specific domain (gimmespam.com? ibuyeverything.com?). Anyone could get an email account there; maybe it would even be a Yahoo! Mail-like webmail service. It would have an associated website listing everyone's email address on it, made optimally machine-readable (say, a CSV file). Maybe even associated interests listed ("crafts, cigarettes, and drugs, please") so spammers can target even better.
Think about it: everyone wins.
- The spammers can concentrate on those who will likely buy, thus dramatically increasing sales-to-spams-sent ratios (and decreasing costs, hence increasing profits)
- The spam-lovers get tons more spam to play with (hey, knock yerself out, buddy!)
- The rest of us get left alone (why bother sending email out to the wilderness where there's slim pickin's, when you can just raid the chicken coop?)
Only issue is seeing if there are enough people like this guy around who will join in.I say let's do it!
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
From the article: Good spam, he says, leaves him feeling blessed and telling himself, "I can't believe this really came."
That's psychological. The guy paid $150 for a METAL DETECTOR and he has a bad back.
From the article: He's bought fancy knives, leather jackets, stuffed animals, party supplies and software, all via spam, and then created Web sites to sell the items at a profit -- a skill he learned from another piece of spam.
It doesn't say that he HAS sold them at a profit. Just that such was the intent.
Actually, this was a huge issue with the "Home Shopping Network" type shows on cable and satellite TV, long before Internet "spam" existed.
I recall reading stories of people who had homes filled from floor to ceiling with boxes, almost all still unopened, ordered from these TV networks. In fact, folks with this disorder probably account for a surprisingly large portion of these station's sales of goods - so it's little wonder the media hasn't done more to make people aware of it.
On the other hand, I've done my share of flea market sales, and I can assure you that the vast majority of these "bargain hunter" shoppers simply get a thrill out of finding a "deal" on items. It's almost a sport or hobby for them. Typically, they make decent money, or they're retired with plenty of income (investments, pensions, etc.), and the amount they spend on needless shopping doesn't put that much of a dent in their total income.
Just like some folks like to spend $50 or so at the bar on a weekend, or spend it on dinner and movie for entertainment value - these people like to blow a little cash on their flea market or online bargain hunts.
If he is a spammer, by his own admission, then anything that he said with regards to "loving spam" is instantly suspect. Rule #1: Spammers LIE.
Of course, there is rule #3: Spammers are STOOPID.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Soto may be a off toward the end of the curve, but the general prevalence of his type of behavior is the basis for a multibillion dollar advertising industry, not just spam. If average, normal people didn't act this way, at least to some extent, modern advertising as we know it wouldn't exist.
From the article : Mr. Soto routinely comes home to some 150 e-mail pitches, and he loves getting them all.
It's been said before : "Spam is not a problem, just hit delete, it takes less than a second".
In this case, the guy takes the time to read the messages. Ok, it means he can handle more spams than most internet users. But everyone has a limit. And every mailbox has a limit. How would he react if he had 1500 emails a day ? 15000 ?
Spammers have no limits, they send billions of messages : This article says AOL blocked 500 billion messages in 2003 and it's increasing.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
Hell's Kitchen. Figures.
He can spell: "Now Only $67 INITIAL and $12 Per Month Thereafter... Cancell anytime!"
He has fantastic grammer: "Please Note: These packages are available seperate."
This is funny too: "We Found the Best products & Values then Added even More to it!..." You added even more values? Really? Like how about some damn values like 'morality' and 'honour'...
What a disgrace.
DON'T harass this guy. If you do, you're certainly worse than any spammer.
Yes, he's contributing to the spam problem (probably without realizing it), but it's not like he's going around clubbing baby seals. He just has an unhealthy shopping addiction. Calling and harassing people is not going to solve anything. Instead, write an article on "why responding to SPAM is BAD" and get it printed. Do something constructive.
Editors: Please remove the post containing his phone number. This kind of crap is giving Slashdot a bad name.
That's like saying your against junk *snail* mail.
How can people still not get it?
When you recieve an ad via snail-mail, the sender has paid the postage. He's paid for the paper it's printed on. When you receive spam, the spammer has stolen your bandwidth, your ISP's bandwidth, your ISP's storage, administrative costs, etc. And your ISP doesn't get to bill the spammer. The ISP passes the costs on to you. When the ISP has to upgrade add more bandwidth to handle the spam, who do you think pays for that? Spammers? What about when the ISP adds on three more mail servers or another four-drive SCSI RAID array to deal with the spam? Do you think the penis enlarger guys are going to chip in to pay the costs?
Who the hell moderated the parent post as insightful? Are they giving moderator points out at crack houses?
See my website (see sig) for more details.
My program has no need for CPU taxing Bayesian filtering in the traditional sense--it uses simple pattern-matching against two wordlists to quickly deem an email as spam.
Restricting unapproved email senders to only alphabetic characters and 'spaces' makes it
impossible for spammers to easily hawk their wares.
These are two of the cold, brutal, logical ideas implemented in my software email filter (see sig).
I get no spam this way. The 'false positives' I do get are deemed spam but that is because the unapproved sender doesn't yet know about my email policy and/or the program that implements it.