No wonder the spam keeps coming

Aristotle on 2005-10-23T15:52:28

From the Los Angeles times, via Yahoo! News, an interview with a 419 scammer; choice quote:

He sent 500 e-mails a day and usually received about seven replies. Shepherd would then take over.

“When you get a reply, it’s 70% sure that you’ll get the money,” Samuel said.

That’s roughly a 1% success rate for each spam mail. Goodness gracious, this isn’t just lucrative, it’s a flippin’ cash cow. No wonder the tide of spam runs ever higher.

And it really gives you an appreciation for, uh, the average intelligence of people. I wonder if any attempt to stem the tide can be successful under such preconditions.

8-ball: My reply is no.

Via Justin Mason: ‘I Will Eat Your Dollars’.

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On the average intelligence of people

cog on 2005-10-24T12:53:53

500 e-mails a day

roughly a 1% success rate

the average intelligence of people

The average intelligence of people, assuming you can relate it to this, is probably quite lower than what you think it is, if we consider that not all of those 500 e-mails might be reaching a destiny.

Re:

Aristotle on 2005-10-24T13:14:24

There’s no obligation, you don’t need to make this any worse, seriously! :-) Life was better when I was blissfully ignorant and thought I was a pessimist – really!

:-(

Sigh.