An interesting little article here about the increasing use spammers are making of the relationship between a zombie and its ISP made me think.

If it's getting more and more difficult to send the stuff out and most users must be aware of the pointlessness of spam and surely 99.9% are sick to the teeth of it and the rest are automatic ignorers - not to mention people like us - then why on earth do the spammers keep at it?

Is it really the 1% of 1% rule to make money? Or the thrill of the chase?

How do they succeed in an almost entirely alienated market where each 'offer' competes with a hundred a day (unless you use Sp@mX) that are similar and all look disreputable?

For example, I still receive a good half dozen (now) a day for 'mortgages'. Can anyone really make money from that?

OK, some harvest the addresses and make money from selling them. But so what?!

flyers alone can cost you 5-10 cents each...

postage, another 10-20 cents...

lets assume your average snail mail spam costs 25 cents on the cheap.

100,000 X 25cents = $25,000

1% of 100,000 is ... 1,000

1% of 1,000 is 10 people

if 10 people get a mortgage and you earn $3-5K per person (some people earn 10K+ per person!) , you made $30,000-50,000 but spent $25,000 doing it.

Now enter spam!

100,000 x 0cents = $0

You just made yourself an extra $25,000 by spamming, and lose at most the $10 (or 0 if you used viruses) connect fee.

Now you understand WHY there's so much spamming...

On top of that, people who have computers, you know most of them will be your target demographic. And there are always the 1% of 1% who will click on anything (I seriously believe the number is way higher too)

Mark, a news story I read yesterday said that 4% of Americans polled said they had ordered a product in the last year based on a spam message they received. And, 12% of Americans polled said they read their spam messages. So, it's definitely worth it for the spammers, particularly when you consider how few of them are prosecuted and how many foreign servers are willing to host spammers.

-- David

Richard,



In theory, Yes. But are there really ten people - even out of all the tens of millions this trash goes to - who are so naive as to sink their houses, money and potentially their livelihood into a spam mortgage?

(I suppose there must be.)

You'd be amazed... Remember all the corporate scandals, the S&L scams, people bilking others out of billions of dollars just based on hearsay and greed?

Maybe its Darwinian Redistribution of Funds...

David,

I had always assumed as you do - particularly, say, where little $ outlay and risk are concerned.

But a mortgage for goodness' sake!

How would you know which 'offer' to follow up on - from the many you get?

Either you're looking for a mortgage/refinance and just decide on the basis of the spam incoming which to pick.

Or you'd never though about it, get 25 spam mortgages and think, "Oh Yes, I'll buy a new home, move house, job and life because 30 criminals are offering me .075%."

There's one born every minute, it seems.

I've seen seniors blow their life savings on get-rich-quick schemes...

You know those Nigerian finance scams where so and so inherited millions of dollars and they want you to help them funnel money out of the country and they will give you a % of it?

People REALLY DO fall for it! The newspaper ran a story on one poor fella who actually booked a ticket and flew to there only to get arrested for not having a visa...

Maybe the internet needs a license to get on it

It would be crazy enough to trust a spammer even if his contact information were legitimate. But considering that most of them forge their e-mail address (as we both know), Can you imagine trusting your mortgage to someone who lies about their identity from the start?

-- David

What gets me as well, is the fact that I have a .au (australia) address. Are these idiots so stupid that they don't realise that a loan is of no use to me at all, let alone the fact that importing Viagra is a No-no. I know they simply buy a list and get paid by the email sent (presumably) so they don't care whether it is a useful spam (oxymoron!) or not and likely to generate a response. So much of this is useless anyway and even more is even more useless and pointless to us who are not in the US!
Rant off

I got spam-vited to a club party in Russia

Dozvydanya Richard and hope you are having a great time sipping your vodka and caviar

It is equally illegal to sell licensed drugs etc in the UK and it matters not a jot to spammers that your e-mail address ends .uk just as the junk mailers pushing leaflets through your letter box don't care that it is ludicrous to post adverts for conservatories through doors of flats (apartments to those outside our sunny GB shores ) that don't have any ground to put them on!

I expect you would get a similar response from the online spammer: "not my fault mate, I'm just paid to give you the information and I'm told off if I use my initiative and leave someone out. Not paid for initiative, just volume of output." Hmmm I think I worked for a company like that once