Spam Capital of the World

ermita2 writes "The South Florida Sun-Sentinel published this weekend a story about how South Florida is home to more spammers than any other place in the world according to Spamhaus. The reason for that seems to be Florida's long history and friendliness with dirty business from real estate speculation to the penny stock scammers. Among the interesting tidbits is anecdotal evidence that the amount of spam worldwide fell for a while after last year's hurricanes in Florida."

Comments

Florida is for business

[esconsult1]

If you ever lived in Florida, then you know that its one of those states that is so thoroughly corporate that residents don't have too many options than to toe the line of conformity.

All the building codes, regulations, and sundry laws seem to favor corporations above everything else. Its one of those places you'll find scammers, shady SEO consultants and search engines, and yes... spammers.

Why do we tolerate these businesses?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, we do have some control over these people?

Why do we voters tolerate these businesses that bring nothing to the economy except for to the few only at the expense of the unwilling many and their time? Like telemarketers used to be such a PITA(got much less since the National Do-Not-Call lists), we should follow suit and push laws that shut down these people if they do it within the US.

If they want to yell Freedom of Speech, let them build a website I may or may not choose to go.

Con Men and Crooks

[Detritus]

If you ever get the chance, see The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx brothers. Its backdrop is the great Florida land boom/swindle of the 1920s, which attracted con men and crooks from across the nation. Now their great-grandchildren are spamming us.

Personal Story

[Anonymous Coward]

I wrote this last year in my 'blog:

It's not everyday that you get a phone call from a sleazy spammer. I was just filling out some forms and this random guy (apparently) from Miami, Florida calls me up. He asked about my BotBlock service, or rather how to override it. Turns out he wants to pay me "any amount you want" to make a software that can bypass the image-verification (CAPTCHA) used by TicketMaster. He told me his "competition" was overtaking him and he was willing to pay me $5,000 to make such an application. Best of all, if I was feeling lonely, he could send me a hot woman any time of the day. I politely told him, "I'm sorry Sir but I think I'll have to hang up now. Please do not call again."

The world of mafia and money launderers of the yester years used to be a world of machismo, bravado, and to a certain extent glamour. While the neighborhood mobster is mostly a thing of the past, street-corner spammers are dime a dozen and each is trying every under-handed trick to oust the other. There is nothing smooth or sauve about trying to peddle cheap sexual aids or promote low-budget vacations to islands that don't exist. I think even the spammers themselves will agree that they are almost the scum of the planet, slightly above child molestors and rapists.

Tonight I had this guy asking me if I could write a ground-breaking software (image recognition is not cakewalk) so he can hoarde tickets illegally and spam mailboxes around the world with filth. Of course I said NO! I will never EVER on any conditions do anything to promote spam. Hell I wrote BotBlock to prevent it! Come to think of it, the genius asked me how to bypass BotBlock! I wanted to say, "What the hell do you think I am??? As dumb as you???" But then, last thing I want to do is piss off a spammer who will only enjoy harassing me. So I just acted polite and hung up.

I have a decent job and a bright career to look foward to so even the slightest dealings with these tarts will taint me forever. But what about the recently laid off, newly-married programmer who has bills, loans, and rent to pay? That's the guy to watch out for. I think the blame lies not only with these slimy spammers but also with smart programmers without jobs. It's no wonder so many hackers (well crackers) are from Russia, where the minds are young and bright but their future is bleak and dark. I'm pretty certain that the spammers are already working in tandem with programmers from all over the world but I wonder if there's anything anyone can do to stop them. Well other than making better blocking and filtering software. I think I'll stick to that for now. /been an AC lurker since 2000. Maybe I should get an account :)

Re:solution

[Prof.Phreak]

Economics problem - spam is profitable as long as 0.01% of the spammed masses buy the pills. As long as there are just a few idiots buying into the crap, we all get spammed.

Or maybe it's just stupid wanna-be spammers who think that? So one spammer spams the world for a few weeks, doesn't make anything, and moves on. Then another spammer thinks ``wow, this is a great business model'', and spams the world for a few weeks, doesn't make anything, and moves on. And so the cycle repeats.