Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Porn Dominates the Spam Battlefield

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bus-plunges-off-ravine dept.

An anonymous reader writes "New York Times has published an article that explores the economics that control what type of spam shows up in your inbox. The study was done by CipherTrust and shows that porn spam is 280 times more effective than spam advertising pharmacy drugs. Paul Judge offered the following towards an explanation: 'If you look at some of the oldest and most successful forms of business on earth, they revolve around sex.'"

5 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Well no shit by grasshoppa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, is this news to anyone? All it takes to learn this is to flip on the TV to any station. Christ, even the local catholic church station. You'll notice they put the prettiest girl they have up on the tube. Why do you think that is?

    Sex sells. I love it when they do this on religion stations especially.

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  2. Key line from TFA by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mr. deSouza pointed out that many spammers work on contract for other people's businesses. "If you're contracted by a company that sells watches or drugs, you might be perfectly happy spamming about watches or drugs," he said.

    Very true, and this is why I've said for a long time that if we ever want to do anything about spam, there's a way to do it without infringing on anyone's freedom of speech: follow the money. You have the right to send any e-mail you want, including spam, and that's the way it should be. You do not have the right to commit other crimes -- e.g. fraud, practicing medicine without a license, etc. -- just because it's "DIFFERENT, this is on the INTERNET." Go after the people who are paying the bills, and most of the "spam kings" will find themselves out of business in short order.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. No just sex by wbean · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Certainly sex has been at the heart of a lot of new industries -- Polaroid cameras, VCRs, Internet, camcorders but it isn't the only common thread shared by the spam in my 'junk' mailbox. Almost all of the offers are either illegal or of dubious legality. Fake Rolex watches, under-the-counter drugs, porn, financial scams. The thing that they all have in common is that they cannot advertise through legitimate channels. Spam is the electronic eqivalent of the guy in the trench coat hanging out in the dark alley who makes a furtive offer under his breath as you walk by.

  4. Hmmm, interesting idea... by celotil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Paul Judge offered the following towards an explanation: 'If you look at some of the oldest and most successful forms of business on earth, they revolve around sex.'"

    Well, duh . :)

    Look at how we were put together. Whether you're a Christian - "Go forth and multiply" - or simply following simple biological design, we were born to breed, all life is.

    Using porn - the modern, supposedly "illicit" form of personal pleasure that doesn't involve the use of exterior drugs (not produced by the body) - marketing appeals to our basest instincts. How could it go wrong?

    --
    Te Quiero, Puta!
  5. Actually... by TCQuad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The news isn't that sex sells, it's that sex sells at a rate 280 times higher than that of its closest competitor.

    The closest competitor is pharmaceuticals (e.g., ads for Viagra/Cialis/Levitra).

    So it's not just that sex sells at a rate 280 times higher than that of its closest competitor, it's that sex sells at a rate 280 times higher than that of its closest competitor, which is also sex.