Trapped Between Abusers and Accusers. It's a Spam Sandwich!Written by Mike Banks Valentine
This week was dominated by SPAM issues for me. I alternate between stunned and complacent over SPAM I receive each day. One day my delete-key-trigger-finger works in rapid bursts to clear inbox. The next day brings a new barrage and I fume as HTML SPAM emails launch web browser windows automatically that can't be closed without opening more windows.Each time Java is launched while I'm reviewing my mail, I almost explode in anger as there is literally nothing I can do to stop it until it loads email, pops up a browser window and I can finally begin to close rapid fire group of popup windows attempting to show hardcore porn or latest body enhancing pills. A news headline caught my eye same day about a Scottsdale, Arizona based company that was closed down by state attorney general for fraud, using spam to gain customers. C.P. Direct, a company selling penis, breast and even HEIGHT enhancing pills was shuttered and assets seized. Apparently there are way too many men without common sense who purchased those "Longitude" pills and then convinced their significant-others to buy pills offering fuller breasts. It saddens me especially those who fell for pills to make you taller. But it seems to pay well to sell snake oil. "Among items seized were luxury cars, including a Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Ferrari and Bentley, $20 million in bank accounts, $3 million in cash and a bounty of luxury jewelry, according to a list of items. Company officials could not be reached for comment. The initial cost of pills was $59.99, plus shipping and handling for a month's supply and $39.99 a month thereafter. Records showed pills cost $2.50 per bottle to manufacture. The company also allegedly sold pills that supposedly guaranteed height increases and bigger breasts, officials said." http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=search&StoryID=1030199 As a list moderator for multiple lists and a host of several newsletters, I have plenty of email to deal with on a routine basis. The time lost to SPAM is just too valuable to give up any more. I see this as a privacy issue as well. Those email addresses harvested from my site by spammers (about a dozen different special purpose addresses) are then resold to so-called legitimate marketers that actually remove me from their lists when I ask, but spammers sell harvested addresses over and over again. I even get spam sent to my I-Privacy list address that were harvested by spambots.
| | Talking About the Big S: Don't let The Young Folk Read. Written by Cheryl A. Crossan
6/18/02 Talking about big S. Don’t let young folk read.Yup, That’s what I’m going to talk about. SPAM. I’ve seen from my inbox this is a subject that can’t be covered enough. I’m not going to cover legal issues, such as getting you Internet service turned off. I’m not going to discuss moral, or ethical or any other philosophical issues. I’m going to tell you exactly how it’s killing your chances at making money. I run ads every week for NetSteals News in ezines I get, just as you run ads in this. What, you didn’t think I got ezines? Sure, tons of them and read ‘em too. In order to advertise NN, I have to give my email address so people can subscribe. Every time one of my ads run, I get at least one UCE or unsolicited email from someone trying to sell me something. They see my email address and decide to send me an offer. Stop and think about this from a business point of view. If this person was offering to give me free money, do you think I’d trust them when they had just spammed me? However, if they took time to subscribe to NN and find out what we’re about; and run free ads, I would of course be reading their ads as I do yours. However, that takes time. But, having a huge email list in which you sell nothing is not as effective as having a list of five people who want to read your offers. I can’t stress that enough. People who spam are merely giving themselves illusion they are doing business. Sure, they may send a lot of emails every day but no one is going to buy things from them. Actually, people are prone to complain about them and cause them to lose their means of conducting business, i.e. Internet access. I had a bounced email from one of our members. I was chilled when I saw what it said. See below.
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