What's the point of Spam?

Mr E

Spam has seriously gone out of control in the last 6 months. Every morning I check my personal inbox and I might have 25 messages. Usually, 90% is spam.

I have filters set up to delete it straight from the mailserver before it even gets to my PC, so its not too annoying.

The way I see it, there are 3 types of spam.

1. Solicited/Opt-in emails (I get mails from Amazon, DMG Direct, Parasol, Road Records and a few others like that which I don't mind getting - I originally requested them)
2. Scam emails (pyramid schemes, 419ers etc.)
3. Everything else! (Promotional, pornsite invites, weightloss tablets, penis enlargements etc.)

The first kind is fine - I asked for it. The second kind is obviously working (link) or they would have stopped ages ago. But what about everything else?

2 questions:

1. Is anyone even remotely interested in reading this stuff, or more to the point, following up on it?
2. Are the people who send it making any money from it? (OK, anyone other than adult sites.) I imagine people are so p*ssed off with spam that they just junk it before opening it.

So why is it on the increase? What can be done about it? Anyone got any thoughts on this?

- Dave.

Mr E

Just checked my blacklist file (addresses that automatically get flagged as SPAM). I've got 289 domains in there. Any mails from any of those domains get flagged as spam, and 99.99% of the time, they are SPAM.

And I'm adding a couple of domains every day. That file has been building up since April.

- Dave.

Wossack

I getting some weird spam lately, addressed directly to me (no cc's) from other kinda 'valid' hotmail addresses (peoples_names@hotmail.com).
They are all about 120+ kb BUT when I open em, theres nothing there.... empty window like, anyone else getting these? Sounds suspect, like a virus, but its using hotmails inbuilt mail browser like. I get 1 or 2 a week....
Should I worry?

Kali

I've two mail addresses, one I use for any web signup processes (and in visible webpages), the other is one I rarely give out... only the first gets any major amount of spam.. second rarely if ever gets spam.

Is anyone even remotely interested in reading this stuff, or more to the point, following up on it?

If they send out ~5000 and only get 5 customers because of it then hell the companies happy... spamming rarely costs them apart from the purchase of mail addresses.

Are the people who send it making any money from it? (OK, anyone other than adult sites.) I imagine people are so p*ssed off with spam that they just junk it before opening it.

the "companies" who send out spam generally purchase bulk amounts of email addresses, whether these are real mail addresses or not doesn't matter... sometimes they are just made up of random dictionary entries for common usernames added to existing domain names... most of them however are just scoured from webpages or bought from existing companies with mailing lists (hence all the "we do not resell your email address" bollox when siging up to stuff.

the best bet is for consistent spam domains to be added to the mail servers block list (rather than an individual a/cs).. then the sender will end up with a 550 error telling them to go **** off... and if their scripts have any sense they'll delete that from their list (saves getting thousands of "mail address not found" replies)

Matfinn

Heres a bit of advice on those strange spam's that people get, the ones with no content but an attachment. Whatever you do, do ont open it. Ill tell you a story. Wierd coincidence this one. I actually recieved a spam from an address that was known to me. Some girl I know apparently sent me an email containing 2 files, one called Spice_girls_vocal_party.fla and the other called pd.bat. I knew this email address so I stupidly ran the batch file in windows 2000, and it ended up messing up my system. I had to put in the windows 2000 cd because some files were reported to be modified. I didnt check the proper header of the email. Just be careful you check the mails true header when opening mails. I commonly get spam mails that appear to have been sent by me.

Just be careful

Matt

jd

Originally posted by TmB
[*]Are the people who send it making any money from it? (OK, anyone other than adult sites
- Dave.

minimal outlay-the receiver pays for downloading it and wastes time sorting it.
I sent Mary Harney a letter about it..she is in the pro spam (opt out) camp - i guess the DMA have her in their pocket, or this pd pro-business mantra has taken over her brain.

As for profitable-look here
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3_1008111

I actually have a better (worse!!) example but I can't find the url