In today's blog I am going to talk about Spam. Unlike my last blog though I will not be talking about the canned meat product but those annoying emails we all receive asking us to buy penis enlargement pills, or to send money to a Nigerian prince.
Spam is an annoying aspect of the internet, but the surprising thing about spam is that it works. This is because it only takes a small percentage of people who open a spam message to respond and the "sender" can make money. Email is very cheap, and the cost of sending them dwarfs how much money can be made. I guess the lesson is we have only our selves to blame for the Spam we receive. There is good news though. The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 tries to regulate the Spam, and the penalties can be huge for companies who send out SPAM. In fact those penalties can range from $16,000 per email sent, and can even include prison time.
Todd you hit the nail on the head about spamming. The simple act of blasting an email, and waiting for one individual to act on it, is both cheap and easy to do. The sad thing is that yes, it works, and that is why it is still around. Reminds me of the office where everyone is in the cubicles, and one person opens an email that sends a virus to everyone else with a message that shuts down production. The poor user’s only hope is that it can’t be traced back to them that day.
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