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Spammers React Quickly To News Events
from the gotta-keep-up-with-the-times dept
The more stories there are about spammers, the more you realize just how much of their business depends on getting a tiny percentage of super gullible people to respond to their spam messages (I'd still like to know just who these people are?). To attract the attention of just a few extra people is a big deal for spammers, especially since they're fighting it out with hundreds of other spammers sending messages to the same gullible suckers. So, one of the latest tactics is to tie new spam campaigns with recent news events. For example, right after Microsoft announced their plans to ban chatrooms in many places, there was a flood of spam advertising spyware that would let parents watch what their kids were doing online. Researchers don't believe it was a coincidence. Of course, if certain reports are to be believed, and most spam originates from just a small group of individuals, it just takes one or two spammers reading the news to figure out ways to create "timely" spam messages.
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Who buys stuff from spam?
I wondered this too - Wired did an article a while back.
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The more stories there are about spammers, the more you realize just how much of their business depends on getting a tiny percentage of super gullible people to respond to their spam messages (I'd still like to know just who these people are?)
As you pointed out in an earlier article (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030804/0239218_F.shtml), spammers can make money without selling anything.
Also, see the recent Wired article (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59907,00.html) about people who really do buy from spammers.
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