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Subject review (reverse sequence)

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Posted by Samson   USA  (683 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Sun 23 Mar 2008 07:20 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
The truly genius spammers will have something to sell *AND* make money off of your click-thru as well. :)

Why anyone falls for the crap is beyond me, but then as they say, it takes brains to be dangerous.
SmaugMuds.org: http://www.smaugmuds.org - The Smaug MUDs Community Center

"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." -- George Orwell, 1984
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Posted by Conner   USA  (381 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Sat 22 Mar 2008 09:56 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
I suppose if the spammer happens to also be the person behind the site they're sending you to then they would have their own 'wares', but I suspect most spam doesn't come directly from the sites selling the actual products but from folks generating traffic for those sites for the click-through payments and/or commission payments. Either way, this is all conjecture anyway, no?
-=Conner=-
--
Come test your mettle in the Land of Legends at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org:4000
or, for a little family oriented medieval fun, come join us at The Castle's Dungeon BBS at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org
or, if you just want information about either, check our web page at http://tcdbbs.zapto.org
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Sat 22 Mar 2008 09:53 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Yes, Darwin put his finger on it, that is the difference I was trying to point out.

Quote:
You know, Mr. Barnum once said something about a sucker being born every minute.. I suspect his proclamation still holds for spam recipients too.

Yes, you are probably right about that! :) It still kind of boggles my mind that somebody would think it a good idea to send money to some random dude in Nigeria... the purported prince of the country, no less! :)
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Darwin   USA  (125 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Sat 22 Mar 2008 04:46 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
It sounds like the difference between making money by selling you something and making money by showing you something.

In one instance, the spammer makes money when you buy something, but in the other, the spammer makes money simply by showing you something (if you happen to click on it.)
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Posted by Conner   USA  (381 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Sat 22 Mar 2008 04:33 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
You know, Mr. Barnum once said something about a sucker being born every minute.. I suspect his proclamation still holds for spam recipients too.

As for the television advertisement analogy.. I see, I suppose in that sense, I don't see how your statement:

Quote:
Almost all the spam I've gotten has been trying to sell something; I thought that was kind of the point of spam. :-)


is really saying anything directly different than my statement was:

Quote:
I wouldn't expect that most spammers have any "wares" to make money off of but that the majority make their money from click-through advertisements and such. *shrug*
-=Conner=-
--
Come test your mettle in the Land of Legends at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org:4000
or, for a little family oriented medieval fun, come join us at The Castle's Dungeon BBS at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org
or, if you just want information about either, check our web page at http://tcdbbs.zapto.org
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Fri 21 Mar 2008 07:05 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Exactly! It's a mystery to me why people actually think it would work. And like you say, why they think the stuff would actually even arrive (assuming it worked). If you got a paper note written in terrible English that was filled with random book citations and crazy formatting, would you feel confident sending them a check?

And yes I also find it quite amusing to think of how one would advertise the "enhancements" in question. :-)



And yes, I did mean what you said about the comparison to TV ads.
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,770 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Fri 21 Mar 2008 02:37 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Quote:

What surprises me is not the numeric argument, but that even 0.5% of people would purchase the spam products.


Yes, that puzzles me too. It is like there are people who say "hey! - if I send my name and address and bank account details to someone in Nigeria, they will put $10 million in my account!" .... as if.

The other thing that puzzles me is people who think the various lotions/pills that are designed to make your, ah, "equipment" larger, will actually help you get (more) girlfriends. I mean, how do you introduce that into the conversation in the first place? Do you walk up to a girl and say "hi! - I have just taken my Viagra, so you won't have to worry about my performance". Somehow I can't see that line working.

Of course, this is on top of my genuine skepticism that the product you order would actually be delivered in the first place. Or, that it would work, if it was.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,770 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Thu 20 Mar 2008 11:20 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Quote:

All the spam you've gotten has been trying to sell you something, right there in the email, eh? No need to visit a web site at all then?


I think he means in the sense that a TV ad is trying to sell you something. However you need to go to the shop to actually make the purchase.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Conner   USA  (381 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Thu 20 Mar 2008 11:07 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Quote:
Almost all the spam I've gotten has been trying to sell something; I thought that was kind of the point of spam. :-)


All the spam you've gotten has been trying to sell you something, right there in the email, eh? No need to visit a web site at all then?

You may have a point about the numbers, the spam that's mailed to folks is generally much more professionally though I was trying to take that into account with the significantly smaller estimate, still, even if sending a spam email out only generated you a few dollars rather than a few hundred or thousand, while there is the risk these days for legal repercussions, overall it "costs" nothing to try and has the potential to bring in serious money.

Oh well, I imagine that it's not really worth trying to get too into analyzing the mindset of the spammer anyway.
-=Conner=-
--
Come test your mettle in the Land of Legends at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org:4000
or, for a little family oriented medieval fun, come join us at The Castle's Dungeon BBS at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org
or, if you just want information about either, check our web page at http://tcdbbs.zapto.org
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Thu 20 Mar 2008 12:03 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Almost all the spam I've gotten has been trying to sell something; I thought that was kind of the point of spam. :-)

I know about the numeric argument. What surprises me is not the numeric argument, but that even 0.5% of people would purchase the spam products. I also don't know about the comparison with snail mail: snail-mail spam tends to be in correct English, with nice pictures and so forth; email spam on the other hand is quite unappealing due to all the tricks they use to get around filters. As an example: are you more likely to purchase something from somebody who can barely put together a sentence, let alone a whole email, or from somebody who presents you with a clean and polished interface?
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Conner   USA  (381 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Wed 19 Mar 2008 10:24 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
I wouldn't expect that most spammers have any "wares" to make money off of but that the majority make their money from click-through advertisements and such. *shrug*

Remember, even if only 1/2 of 1% of the emails you send generate a single penny for you, sending 50 million will still generate $2,500 without any expense outlay, and the odds are that you'll actually not only score better than half of a percent but also that you'll be paid better than a penny per "sale". Does blatant spamming make more sense in that light? (Postal mail advertising agencies claim that their mailers generate 3-6% return so, email spammers have no reason to expect less than half that response, right?)
-=Conner=-
--
Come test your mettle in the Land of Legends at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org:4000
or, for a little family oriented medieval fun, come join us at The Castle's Dungeon BBS at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org
or, if you just want information about either, check our web page at http://tcdbbs.zapto.org
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,770 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Wed 19 Mar 2008 09:24 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Quote:

The page at http://www.gammon.com.au/downloads/dlsmaug.htm needs to be updated as well if you don't mind.


That has now been updated.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Fri 14 Mar 2008 03:32 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
You know, I always wonder who it is that makes money for spammers... how many people actually buy into the "wares" sold by email spammers? Scammers are one thing, they can make fairly good phish mail for people not in the know, but the spammers tend to be quite transparent... hmm... I guess it doesn't take much for them to recuperate their costs.

The domain stuff at least makes sense: it costs quite little, and the advertisement traffic could be worth something to somebody, especially if you have a domain name that closely resembles a very visited site.
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Conner   USA  (381 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Thu 13 Mar 2008 06:48 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Whatever the case, it certainly does seem as though their methods are effective enough to make them a fair bit of dough.
-=Conner=-
--
Come test your mettle in the Land of Legends at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org:4000
or, for a little family oriented medieval fun, come join us at The Castle's Dungeon BBS at telnet://tcdbbs.zapto.org
or, if you just want information about either, check our web page at http://tcdbbs.zapto.org
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Wed 12 Mar 2008 08:27 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Right, I think the idea is just to grab domains that have been used, on the assumption that people will visit them again, and thereby be exposed to the, err, "wares" the sites in question are peddling. I'm not sure that they look for any connections in this case. But for other cases, sure, they try to find common typos and register those. (In fairness, this is what all domain squatters do, not just porn sites.)
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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