Spamalot

Like most major organizations, my library uses a spam filter to keep spam e-mail from even getting to my inbox. However, on the off chance that a real e-mail might get caught, we're sent a digest several times a day of all the spam that's been caught by the filter.

It's absolutely astounding to me how much of this stuff is out there. Each of my digests routinely has 15 blocked e-mails. What I can't figure out is why people keep sending this junk. I mean, even my super-basic, free Mozilla Thunderbird has a spam filter. How many people are still getting fooled by these things?

And of course, who would think these things are real anyway? Who says, "Oh, I just got an e-mail from Kiriharan Loies that says 'May i ask why you're so unhappy with your dick?' I think I'm going to read that." Or who thinks that a subject line that says "Shock action! Vi@gra free! no Money!!" is actually going to send you Viagra for free, even if you do want it?

For a while I thought that maybe people keep sending these things because enough people are stupid enough to open them that it makes it worth their whiles. Now I'm starting to think that it really is only malicious hackers who keep sending it. They really are just trying to make a better virus for the sake of making it, and they don't care who they bring down in the process. I mean, can you imagine how much more bandwidth would be available if there wasn't all this spam floating around?

I have to say though, that these make for some entertaining reading. I haven't seen any of the really good "English is my second language" ones lately; but seeing how many different ways they can suggest that you need a bigger penis, or need viagra, or need software, or stocks, or watches, is fun all on it's own. From "1, 2 oh no 3 orgasms! WOW you can have them too" to "Beat her womb with your new big rod" (ouch!) to "This is not a fly by night company" (if you have to say it...). And of course, the senders. Who can forget Lenore Jackman McCracken? Or Guadalupe Sutherland? Or Devin "Powderpuff" Maldonado?

Maybe if you actually open these things, you deserve what you get...

Comments

Doug said…
There was a study done a few months ago to test to see if any of these spam messages for drugs were legit: The conclusion was that very few of them actually delivered the goods they advertised, the rest were nearly impossible to find the website they were referring to (out of nearly 4000 spam e-mails, only 19 websites still existed after three weeks).

Oddly enough, none of the sites appeared to abuse the credit card information the researchers sent.
November 12, 2007 at 10:18 AM
Steve said…
A friend of mine actually creates art from the names on spam emails- it's pretty neat stuff.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/startfunkel/sets/72157600010439154/
November 12, 2007 at 1:29 PM
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