May 19, 2007
Does ANYONE really click that??
Written by Jenna Petersen in Jaunty PostOkay, so like everyone else in the freaking universe, I get a lot of SPAM. Stupid SPAM. SPAM that involves me increasing the size of my, er, member and mail about losing 65 pounds in two days and mail about my bank suddenly being taken over by martians who want my social security number so that the Nigerians can give me a million dollars. The list goes on and on and on. Invariably, I’m told to click a link and I’ll be spirited away to someplace fabulous where all my dreams of being sickly thin, well… um… endowed and rich on blood money will come true.
Of course, if I click that link, it’s likely I’ll be taken to some phishing site where they will promptly steal my identity, my underwear and my cat. And maybe my husband. I’m just saying, these people are like that. You can’t trust them. You know this and I know this.
So my question is… who the heck is clicking these things? How do the SPAMmers actually make money??? Think of all the time and effort it must take to harvest the emails and craft the confusing letter and fake the ebay websites and all the stuff they do. How much can they possibly be making??
Does anyone know how these scams really work??? And is ANYONE clicking them?
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Rainy Says:
We were selling our RV on ebay last year and almost all the replis we got were scams. Someone would answer that they wanted to buy it and would be sending out a check. In the body of the letter the amount they mentioned was ALWAYS more than what we asked. Leaving out some details, they say they’d send us this check for $10,000 more, for instance. Then you are supposed to deposit it and when the check clears (cashier check, BTW) you send them the $10,000. They say they will pick the RV up later.
We knew it to be a scam so did nothing. But talking with a banker, she said there was a couple in town who had bought in to something like that and deposited a CASHIER’S check which cleared and then started spending. About 2 weeks or more later, the bank called and said check is no good. They are stuck for the money! So, beware of cashier’s checks.
The thing is, many of these letters try to reach that little bit inside many of us…greed and superiority. Many of these letters are severely mispelled (making the writer sound less intelligent, thus you are smarter and can take advantage of the situation). It’s a lot like the shell or card came played in NYC!
Here’s soem info online about scams and how they do it:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/doznalrt.shtm
http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/Email_Scams_Phishing_and_Fraud.htm
Lois Says:
Absolutely, people do click on that stuff. .. hence why there is always a story on the news to show people don’t click on that. And sure, they make money. . . until they are caught. . .
Well, I do wonder if some, maybe 1% of the spam is legit, but still, the method they’re sending it, it just lumps itself with the crap. I guess it’s a cheap way of doing it.
Lois
Clarisse Says:
In have wondered the same thing. I mean obviously the ones that tell you your Paypal account has been canceled are just phishing for your personal info so they are making money by ripping off your identity. But some of this Spam must actually be trying to sell SOMETHING, right? I guess if you depend on the stupidity of people to earn your own living, you will always find some folks dumb enough to click on any shiny box they see in an email. Sad.
Shana Says:
It’s such an annoyance, isn’t it? Half on my SPAM doesn’t even look like English. It’s all these weird accented A’s. Delete, delete, delete. How much extra time do you think we’d have in a day if we didn’t have to delete SPAM and enplty Bulk folders?
Clarisse Says:
The thing that makes me nuts is that you keep upping the barrier for spam in your spam filter and then you start catching “real’ mail that you don’t want to miss. I wish the Congress could do the same thing for Spam that they did for the No-Call list for phones. That’s a presidential campaign platform stand that I could support.
JackieToo Says:
I’m picky about what I open much less about what I “click”.
Haven Rich Says:
My husband is the type that if it interests him enough…he’ll click it just to see. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gotten things in the mail because of it. Drives me nutty!
I’m the type who thinks everything is a scam. I trust very little online (as for things I click lol). So knowing my luck..if I ever submit, I’m most likely delete the first email from the editor/agent thinking it’s spam.