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Who benefits from spam?

Badly Shaved Monkey

Anti-homeopathy illuminati member
Badly Shaved Monkey
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Messages
5,363
Sitting here wading through reams of spam-mail, I realise I don't know the answer to several very simple questions.

Are there real companies selling real products behind all the offers of cheap loans and prescription drugs?

I think I am right in saying that there is a market in validated e-mail addresses, which is why you must never hit the 'Unsubscribe' link in spam mail- it just confirms that the account is in use. I made this mistake with one of my accounts and it is the one that is being buried in spam. Is most spam sent out on the basis of purchased lists of e-mail addresses or do the spammers send e-mail to random account names?

Do e-mail lists of legitimate companies 'leak' out to spammers?


I'm much more careful with my newer e-mail accounts and they seem to be clean at the moment, but I'd like to kep them that way.

I'll be grateful for any help.
 
The companies that market and produce anti-spam filtering software make money out of spam...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
 
Darat said:
The companies that market and produce anti-spam filtering software make money out of spam...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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Fair enough, but I don't suppose they can be responsible for all of it can they?
 
Sorry I was being laconic.

What I was meaning is that there are definitely some people making money out of spam, not just the originators of the spam. I don’t seriously think the spam filter software producers are behind the spam – but it does make for a nice conspiracy theory.
 
What we really need is someone who tracks down spammers and tortures them a bit.

Post all their personal information on the web for ALL to see. You want to know who's behind these spamvertisements? WE'LL TELL YOU WHO.

Of course, you could go too far...
http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/thespamreport/0,39025001,39117044,00.htm
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/0,39020372,39118075,00.htm

Maybe these are what we're looking for.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46254-2004Jan25?language=printer
 
I liked the approach of the Russian, maybe we should try spamming the spammers.;) Seriously, i too have wondered who on earth gets some money out of spam. Most of the spam mails are insultingly stupid, the things they are flogging are trash that no body in their right mind would buy. I raised an eyebrow recently when Bill Gates suggested that we should pay for e-mails but he COULD be on the right track. The price didn't have to be high (one cent pr mail) but i think that would be enough to stop many spammers......Perhaps, ........ Well ???
 
Didn't he mean pay with computer time ?
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I don't know, the way i heard it it sounded kinda like paying pr-sent E-mail a sort of postage. But i could have heard wrong.
 
Ove said:
i too have wondered who on earth gets some money out of spam. Most of the spam mails are insultingly stupid, the things they are flogging are trash that no body in their right mind would buy.
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I used to wonder the same, but apparently there are many people not in their right mind. Even 1 out of 10000 would be a good success rate for a spammer. People have travelled to Nigeria to meet Prince Mobutu, why wouldn't they buy a penis enlargement cream ?
 
El Greco said:


I used to wonder the same, but apparently there are many people not in their right mind. Even 1 out of 10000 would be a good success rate for a spammer. People have travelled to Nigeria to meet Prince Mobutu, why wouldn't they buy a penis enlargement cream ?
Click to expand...

You can buy a cream.... ? ;)
 
Darat said:


You can buy a cream.... ?
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Sure you can! I sell them myself. Amazing stuff, I tell you! Just give me your e-mail and I'll let you know more :p
 
Ove said:

I don't know, the way i heard it it sounded kinda like paying pr-sent E-mail a sort of postage. But i could have heard wrong.
Click to expand...

The way it was initially reported was that you would pay as though for a postage stamp, but it was later clarified that he did mean computer time. So for each email you send, a small proportion of your PCs idle time would be "borrowed" for some other purpose. The idea being that if you send a few emails you'll never notice, but if you send a couple of million your PC will grind to a halt.

The problem with all of this is that it appears to assume that spammers only use Windows machines to send their spam. Obviously they don't. And even if they did they'd change to something like Linux.
 
The way I see it, the problem is that the authorities just don't care. It's freaking easy to spot the spammers, just pretend you are a customer. A dedicated service inflicting strict punishment could eliminate spamming.
 
The way I see it, the problem is that the authorities just don't care. It's freaking easy to spot the spammers, just pretend you are a customer. A dedicated service inflicting strict punishment could eliminate spamming.
Click to expand...

Yes but wouldn't they then not just move the business to another country outside the law? I really haven't any good answer exept for more effective Spam-filters and it annoys me to have to use/pay for such.
 
You'd be surprised at who benefits. Politicians and even legit businesses for one. If some politician wasn't get rich off it, it would be crushed out of existence. Send out 30 million mesaages for a nominal fee, and make $100,000. If there was a zero response rate, there wouldn't be spam. One of the most persistent and annoying spams I ever received was froma respected national news magazine. It just would not quit. E-mail, pop-ups, pop-unders. It finally stopped when I used Spybot and an internet security program.

I never get pop-ups now and very few spam e-mails. I still think white-lists are the way to go. Home is fine. Work is another matter. Our e-mail addresses are out there for the world to see, so we literally get 100's of spam e-mails a day. I spend about 20 minutes every morning cleaning crap off the mail server.

Spammers saw the writing on the wall long ago and they chaged tactics to avoid getting shut down. DOS attacks on black list servers, hijacking unprotected computers, moving out of country. Some of the biggest of the recent virus attacks were spammer tests of software. Now there is one virus floating around that is in its early stages that doesn't require you to open it to activate it. That will surely evolve into some sort of hijacker.

The idea of charging internet stamps will only cost the honest consumer money, it will do nothing to stop spammers. It is probably inevitable though, I can't see any Government letting that mush revnue slide away for long. Soon ISP's will be taxed, forcing companies to charge extra for e-mail. "And would you like 500 anytime e-mail's for $4.99 per month?"
 
Ove said:
Yes but wouldn't they then not just move the business to another country outside the law?
Click to expand...

The spamming business yes, but what about the whole chain ? What about the factory, the wholesailer, the retailer, etc ? Is it so easy to move everything out of the law ?
 
Track down the actual identities, phone numbers, emails and physical home addresses of the individual people who authorize or do the major spamming. For that matter, telephone solociting.

Spam everybody with that information.

If there's 1 in 100,000 that will actually go pay them a visit with a sledge hammer, then it will be worth it: Just like SPAM.

Heck, throw in the name of their families and pictures of their pets while you're at it.
 
El Greco said:


The spamming business yes, but what about the whole chain ? What about the factory, the wholesailer, the retailer, etc ? Is it so easy to move everything out of the law ?
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The company is not responsible for the actions of the vendor.
 
Bottle or the Gun said:


The company is not responsible for the actions of the vendor.
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Yes, but you'll find out that in many cases these companies are directly responsible for the spamming. It is their only way of advertising and their only presence in the market.
 
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