I had a wild hair earlier today to google "why do spammers send spam"….mostly because in our inbox at the store there were 100's of spam emails (we filter out a lot, but if your filter is set too aggressive you miss emails you actually want)--therefore we have to hand sift thru quite a few that still slip thru.
Scanning the subject lines:
"Add penis girth….
"Tires..best price for tires"
"CostRicanVacation…."
"Oil Change Coupon...
"Amy Shyumer in bed with Jimmy Fallon….
It fascinates me, the concept that somebody is holed up in some dark room, typing away on their computer creating code to send crap we don't want. So I googled it….tried to find out more. What I found made me think about the different "kinds" of spammers. There's the super illegal "I'm coming from Nigeria with my million dollar property and I need $1000 to deed it"….to cons about Fed Ex packages etc. They are stealing money, theft without leaving the home (and hard to prosecute although it does happen).
Then there's the whole group of spams designed only for name impact. They want you to see a name, click on the email, then make the mistake of clinking on a link in the email and book, they get money in their pocket (because they are paid by impression of either the site URL or a popup). The odds are low, but it's a numbers game--these retailers figure if only one in 10k people click thru and buy something, it's worth it because they are dealing with millions and millions AND millions of emails.
Then there are just the nasties out there who want nothing more than to write code to create damage. Either sending viruses, or sending information about Amy Shyumer (guessing she really isn't sleeping with Jimmy Fallon).
The world of the computers and technology create this whole hidden, secretive and dark underground…where all I can envision is some pimply overweight guy, hunched over his computer, drinking soda and punching in code that either makes him money (hard to picture this guy going to an actual "real" job) or satisfy some angry, deeply disturbed aspect of his personality.
It's just incredible how much spam there is. I probably see 50 penis enlargement emails each morning….I wonder if I was a guy with a small pens what that would do to my subliminal messaging section of the brain? Might just prompt me to go buy something "enlarging" from one of these sites…who knows!!
That's it….my random Friday brain tangent. :-)
Signed, ME {lv}