SPAM Does Work.

Who says SPAM doesn't work!

LEAD STORIES

Wired magazine reported in August that an order screen at the big e-mail spammer, Amazing Internet Products, was left unsecured and was hacked into recently, revealing not only an inexplicably large sales volume (6,000 orders in four weeks for $50 Pinacle cream that promised to increase penis size by up to 3 inches) but some prominent, should-know-better customers, such as the manager of a $6 billion mutual fund in New York City. Wired (and earlier, Salon magazine) reported that AIP's two principals are a 19-year-old high-school dropout and chess vagabond and a 20-something former head of a neo-Nazi outfit. [Wired, 8-6-03; Salon,7-29-03]

But have any idea how many emails were sent for those 6000 sales? FastCompany had an article which stated that on average a small time sp*mmer sends 1million emails a day. A bigtime sp*mmer sends as many as 25million emails a day.

25million a day * 30 days brings in 6000 sales. Thats a very bad conversion rate.

Mostly because the list is not targeted. If these people would have sent the email only to a database of people who surf p*rn sites - they would certainly have received better conversion rates as well as less complaints.

Because some of the sp*m email messages are crafted really well.

---

There is no satisfaction in sp*mming though. You build no loyalty. You built no customer base. You receive no testimonials. No love. Its worthless to do business that way.

(I had to add * in some words because I got an error saying my post wasnt submitted as it contained naughty language :O )


Spam free and Ad free Inspiration

Please provide links to these stories so we can verify them ourselves.

Otherwise, it's just spreading rumours.

Such as the bit about the fund manager.

So some person's name appears in a database of people who bought some product. With the vast amount of credit card fraud going on, and with that fraud going on with sex related websites, there is a good chance any name you see will be of someone whose credit card was stolen.

Michael Ross


3 For Free

Here you are....

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html

"News of The Weird" is a syndicated newspaper column here in the U.S.

Sorry that my post seemed to have upset you so.

> Please provide links to these stories so we
> can verify them ourselves.

> Otherwise, it's just spreading rumours.

> Such as the bit about the fund manager.

> So some person's name appears in a database
> of people who bought some product. With the
> vast amount of credit card fraud going on,
> and with that fraud going on with sex
> related websites, there is a good chance any
> name you see will be of someone whose credit
> card was stolen.

> Michael Ross

> 25million a day * 30 days brings in 6000
> sales. Thats a very bad conversion rate.

The conversion rate does not matter when it costs ZERO to market.

If they only made one sale after sending ten million emails, they would still do it.

> Mostly because the list is not targeted. If
> these people would have sent the email only
> to a database of people who surf p*rn sites
> - they would certainly have received better
> conversion rates as well as less complaints.

Sure. But you are now expecting a spammer to think like a normal ETHICAL businessman. The fact they are spamming shows they don't give a toss about whether you want to see their message, or anything other than their own interests.

> There is no satisfaction in sp*mming though.
> You build no loyalty. You built no customer
> base. You receive no testimonials. No love.
> Its worthless to do business that way.

It is worthless for a NORMAL business to do business that way. Look at WHAT the spammers are selling...

Viagra - for those who want to have SEX.
Penis Enlargement - another SEX thing.
**** - more SEX.
Meet people who want to have unattached (no commitment) sex.

The people who buy this stuff don't expect to see a well lit store in the middle of a shopping center selling all this. They prefer to buy out of the public's eye. That's the market. People who are letting sex be the main thing in their life. So those who sell and those who buy are somewhat suited to each other. That is... if sex is the main thing in your life, you don't care about other things, or too much about other people as long as you get your thrill.

And that is not normal business.

One way spam could be stopped somewhat is with ISP's charging a email fee for email when it exceeds X number per day (one million or so). Or banning those people from having account outright (send over 500,000 emails a day and you lose your account). BUT, the spammers could use other means (hacking) to send out their garbage. But if the ISP's had something in place that restricted email sending, it would be a step in the right direction - or at least something that might help identify the spammers so they can be shut down.

Fanatasy thinking? Yep. There will always be some ISP who is spam friendly... or some spam body who buys their own T1 lines for sending stuff out. But that's no reason to not try.

What do you (everyone reading) suggest to help get rid of the spammers??

Michael Ross


Spam Free Zone

Thanks for the link, Carl.

I am not upset. I don't get upset. Nothing's worth getting upset about. Well... maybe some things. But not a lack of a link.

Don't like unliked "stories" though. Call it a throw-back to the days of... "There's a new virus called SoWhat. It was on AOL and microsoft mentioned it. Delete all fiiles called freddie.dll. Pass this on"... emails. And people would send all this hoax stuff on without checking.

Like to "check" the stories. Read them at their original source.

Checking your link reveals nothing more than what you posted.

Here are the original sources hinted at...

Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59907,00.html

Salon:
http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/07/29/spam_nazi/index_np.html

And as I stated in my other post. Just because a name and credit card appear on an order form of some sex site place, doesn't mean the owner of that card did the buying.

Michael Ross

In the offline word, someone opens a directory and harvests peoples names and addresses from it and sends them a promotional letter - and its called guerilla marketing! People like Gary Halber, Dan Kennedy et al teach this tactic.

You try doing the same online - and you are a villain.

The problem is ofcourse as Michael said: its too cheap and easy to send emails. And so every tom dick and harry starts spamming.

One way to prevent people from spamming is to make it expensive. To start charging for sending emails. But there are ways around it. Buy your own lines. Setup your operation in China.

Another way is to make the spammers realize how it feels when they are the target.

A spammer from NewZealand stopped sending spam once his address was posted on some internet forum. People started calling him in the middle of the night and then he realized how it feels when you send a bad message at a bad time.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3518682

Some one could setup a company that tracks down the spammers and publishes their info online. And asks people to call him up everyday for the next week. Or month.

This will be very hard to setup though. And you would need evangalists who hate spam. Who would be willing to pay long distance phone bills for getting rid of spammers. And the fight will be slow.

I doubt any single method will work though. Spammers can apply methods that make it very hard and expensive to track them.

So more than one tactic will have to be employed.


The nz spammer story

dno
> Who says SPAM doesn't work!

> LEAD STORIES

> Wired magazine reported in August that an
> order screen at the big e-mail spammer,
> Amazing Internet Products, was left
> unsecured and was hacked into recently,
> revealing not only an inexplicably large
> sales volume (6,000 orders in four weeks for
> $50 Pinacle cream that promised to increase
> penis size by up to 3 inches) but some
> prominent, should-know-better customers,
> such as the manager of a $6 billion mutual
> fund in New York City. Wired (and earlier,
> Salon magazine) reported that AIP's two
> principals are a 19-year-old high-school
> dropout and chess vagabond and a
> 20-something former head of a neo-Nazi
> outfit. [Wired, 8-6-03; Salon,7-29-03]