'Why the spammers do what they do'

Jess from New York -

You always wonder if anybody ever actually bites at those spam emails they send out. Most are poorly written with typos and a terrible sales pitch, so does anybody ever actually buy the product? There was an article in Wired magazine recently about a Russian spam king that was murdered because of his visious spamming techniques. The article describes how he built his empire around a business that was being promoted through spam. Apparently they were sending out so many e-mails that even if only a tiny fraction of the recipients were going for it, it was still enough to make them extremely wealthy.

Comment #1 Tara from Somewhere cold -

I just don't understand it either. Obviously some of these people think that it's "real" (or they have horrible spelling problems too lol) and just click away. Even some of the best email filters aren't going to catch everything.

Comment #2 Jenna from A highly secure location -

It all boils down to the percentages. They send out spam in such high volumes that the smallest interest will still be of value to them. They also play on people's emotions and know that there are always people with financial, sexual and confidence problems that are willing to try just about anything.

Comment #3 Keter from the garage door -

Some of the spam I get is so crudely filled with mis-spellings that I wonder who could possibly fall for it. Are you worried about your "helth" comes up virtually every day! Only someone woefully uneducated could fall for this stuff, so I must assume that is their target market.

Comment #4 Jenna from A highly secure location -

They say it's to avoid being caught by spam detection software as it makes them look more legitimate, but I don't know if I buy that anymore. Nobody spell that badly LOL.

Comment #5 Conyngham from the windy city -

The points made about bad spelling and illiterate content are surely correct, but there is also plenty sophisticated advertising out there in the form of spam. Difficult to define what constitutes spam, but I suppose unsolicited advertising is no less spam than the Nigerian scams.

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