A Day In The Life Of A Spammer

kaip writes "Internetnews.com has a story of a spammer. The individual sends 60 million spam emails for four days worth of work and claims that one in 19 of AOL users clicks the links in his mortgage spam (this number should however be taken with a grain of salt, see rules 1 and 2). Maybe not everybody has heard of the Boulder Pledge... The article also tells how the CAN-SPAM Act, which legalises spamming, is turning the US into the spam haven of the world. Currently, 86 percent of the total spam volume is coming from the States."

Comments

Re:Our love-hate relationship with business-scum

[savagedome]

we go through the Sunday Newspaper looking for the ad circular from our favorite store so we can see what's on sale without having to go there.

That 'looking for' is the key. If I don't want to, I don't have to read the ad section.

Plus, everybody knows how fradulent these spam schemes are. Atleast, with the newspaper, if the frauds start creeping up, the newspaper company has to step up and tighten the noose.

Double standards?

[IceFreak2000]

On page one of the article:

"Richard Cunningham" more than likely isn't his real name; he won't say one way or another

And on page two:

"They are nothing more than kooky Net trolls out to profit and glorify themselves off a so-called problem more so than actually attempting to fix the so-called problem," he said. "They do not scare me, and the likes of them are cowards hiding behind a computer screen."

If he ain't scared, why hide behind a false name?

Re:*sigh*

[Karma Farmer]

SPAM will continue to exist until people stop making spam profitable.

SPAM will continue as long as spammers percieve that spam is profitable.

I have never read an article where a spammer actually gave solid documentation of how much money he or she made. I've always read that "for a successful campaign, I get between this much and that much on a sales rate of this much or that much on a click through rate of about this on a distribution of about that."

Sending spam is a get-rich-quick scheme, and the people participating lie about how much money they make, just like every other stooge in every other get-rich-quick scheme. Spam will continue to exist as long as shitheads who live in trailers with high-interest credit cards will agree to "spend money to make money" by buying scam email proxy servers and scam bulk email software.

Re:Con means anti-Pro, Congress is the anti-Progre

[Ibag]

I think many people aren't quite clear on the first amendment. It says roughly that we have the right to say what we want. However, it does not say that we can force people to listen or that we have any right to be heardd.

It should be noted, before I say anything else, that corperate speech does not fall under free speech. General unsolicited email might be covered under the first amendment, but spam advertizing something business related isn't.

Additionally, sometimes what people consider free speech crosses over into things which are illegal. You can tell something, but if you follow them around and continue telling them, that could be considered harassment. You can put up a protest, but if you threaten people or indimidate others or keep people from getting to work or cause a large disturbance or many other things, you're protest has crossed the line of what is legal.

The point is that you can say whatever you want when it doesn't affect anybody else, but we don't live in a vacum and your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.

The actions of spammers are destructive and cost people time and money, even if you ignore fraudulent spam. To say that it should be legal by first amendment is to ignore much of the issue.