andrewducker: (Calvin's Brain)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2007-10-07 03:17 am

Spam

Surely the point of spam is to get as many responses as possible?

That being the case, you have to wonder what percentage of the market the person sending spam marked "fat granny riding young cock" was expecting to be interested in their product.

I mean, I'm sure there's a _few_ people out there, but when 95% of your emails will get killed by filters, having 99% of the remainder deleted by people with a grimace on their face isn't really the response you'd hope for.

Unless, of course, this is one of those fetishes that's actually really popular amongst the general population that nobody ever talks about, because they think it'll make them look weird.

[identity profile] autodidactic.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Is this your way of saying you're into fat grannies, Andy?

[identity profile] guyinahat.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Of course it is also a way of getting noticed. After all, you've posted about it.

This is nothing...

[identity profile] zornhau.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 11:30 am (UTC)(link)
...I once received spam trying to sell me surplus marine equipment, ya'know derricks, container loaders, that sort of thing...

[identity profile] johnbobshaun.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
My favourite spam subject line recently was "JOHN: WELCOME TO THE AGE OF BIG PENIS".

[identity profile] surliminal.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I similarly quite liked "We are here for you and your penis!". heartwarming really..

[identity profile] theweaselking.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Spam is free, for the sender. All costs are paid by the recipient. Therefore, even one single hit on the link produces ad revenue, which makes your spam run profitable. Every subscription, even one in ten million, is profitable.

As well, most of these spams hotlink an ad image in the body of the mail - meaning, even looking at the spam message in a preview window in a misconfigured email program like Outlook, Outlook Express, or an MS Hotmail clone, generates ad revenue for the spammer and confirms that the address is live.

As well, by using repugnant and embarrassing spam subjects, you can get unclued people to try to get themselves removed from your list., even if they're not hit with the web-ad. Every removal attempt is a confirmation that the email address is live and someone is reading it, meaning that that address can itself be sold to other spammers as "confirmed", meaning it's worth more.

[identity profile] surliminal.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
>>As well, by using repugnant and embarrassing spam subjects, you can get unclued people to try to get themselves removed from your list., even if they're not hit with the web-ad. Every removal attempt is a confirmation that the email address is live and someone is reading it, meaning that that address can itself be sold to other spammers as "confirmed", meaning it's worth more.

THAT is interesting - I've had some lately with really upsettingly offensive headers and wondered why...

[identity profile] theweaselking.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Spammers make money on *any possible response*, no matter what the response is, unless that response is an abuse complaint to their ISP which is then acted upon. The trick is just thinking up a way to
A) make the target respond
B) make money off that response

Selling products is a distant third - but even if one in a hundred thousand people click the link to buy whatever the spammer is selling, that's a big chunk of profit.

[identity profile] onyxrising.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
There are fetish magazines for men who like their women older.
Assuming the porn is meant to appeal to grannies who want younger men, I can see how it'd work. They're a nearly untapped market. Studies have repeatedly shown that senior citizen married couples have no less sex than younger ones, so clearly they don't have all that much less sex drive. And yet- one sees so little porn catering to that age demographic. I mean, an old single granny probably likes to fantasize about a pool boy who likes his women to have a little more life experience.

[identity profile] khbrown.livejournal.com 2007-10-07 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
At least they're a) still alive and b) human rather than other animal ;-)

[identity profile] thadrin.livejournal.com 2007-10-09 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
You are aware of RUle 34 aren't you?

There was something about Dragons and cars floating around the net a while back...and I have this picture of two AT-ATs...