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Who Benefits from Spam, Anyway?
Elbowgeek asks: "I've noticed that the vast majority of spam emails I receive are barely literate, to the point that in some cases one can hardly discern the product or service being advertised. Since most people are savvy/jaded enough to detect these entities that are not filtered automatically, just where does the profit motive from these messages come from? Is it simply the theory that if you send enough spam messages you're very likely to hit enough gullible recipients to make an acceptable amount of money? Does anyone have any insight on this dark underbelly of Internet advertising?"
Is there any point left in spam but to keep spam-blocking companies in business? After all, Internet Security is quite the nice racket...
My regular email address gets them from time to time but its my Final Fantasy XI PlayOnline email address that gets them the most.
They are emails with gibberish for subject lines and gibberish for contents. They are sentences which make no sense what so ever, random words put together that have little meaning at all. There's no ad, no link, and the addresses they are sent from are bogus (I know, I tried finding them). A few of these emails have originating address of @ds1.yahoo.com or @server1.paypal.com or @ddl.amazon.com and so on and so forth. The actual address itself is made up of random letters and numbers.
My theory, like those suggested aboove, is that these emails are sent by "Botnets" to random email addresses in order to see which ones don't bounce. This can be in preparation for sending ad-like spam or a prelude to a virus infestation. Or, like someone else suggested it could be a form of coded communication which is widely broadcasted in order to prevent the authorities from find out its true intended destination.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
Eeuwh. Believe it or not, they can cause you many Maalox moments under certain circumstances.
Take a close look at these. If (a) you have a website, and (b) they come in pairs, or especially if they come in threes, they can be a signal that somebody is evaluating you for a bit of cross-site scripting--or worse yet, that they have you. They may look as though the sender has forged and garbled your email address--but then again, they may not look like that. Little spates of one-word messages merit a second glance. They're like the odd little sounds you might hear if someone were trying the doorknobs of your house in the middle of the night.
"Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
I'm beginning to think they must be paying Google to never tag their crap as spam.
1) Offer free email with gobs of space to instantly become a major player in that area.
2) Punch blatantly obvious holes in the spam filters for your biggest-budget customers.
3) When people complain, simply remind them that it's still in beta.
4) Profit!
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
I did the same thing. I took a spam with a very clear disclaimer (although they used a tiny font):
[...] We have received 250.000 free trading shares from a third party, not an officer, director or affiliate shareholder. We intend to sell all 250.000 shares now, which could cause the stock to go down. This company has : negative cash flow from operations, no revenues in its most recent quarter, an accumulated defecit, a negative net worth, nominal cash, a going concern opinion from its auditor and related party transaction. [...] This is a penny stock and is a high risk security. URGENT: Please, Please Read the Company's SEC filings before you invest.
The stock was ASIQ.OB, before this spam, it was around $0.25
So the 'third party' gave around $62.500 to the spammer in free shares. Few days after, the stock was priced around $0.75
If the spammer sold everything at this price, he actually gain $187.500.
The 'third party' bought probably a million or more of trading shares. Imagine how profitable this operation was for both of them.