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Ten years of Spam

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Contributed by: Dave Hughes on 3/5/2008

Now I don't know how many years you hub readers have been online, and using e-mail, but I have been online, one way or another since 1980. Starting out with my Rogers Bar computer Bulletin Board with locals dialing in by modem to discuss and sometimes debate local politics. A few hundred then.

Then conversations were possible between everyone who was a subscriber to one or the other national dial-up services like Compuserve or the Source. Several thousand on each service from across the country, talking to each other.

Then the full Internet came on line, and everyone could e-mail everyone else even if they were subscribed to different services. That was followed by every other country in the world getting on the American invented Internet bandwagon, and then the discussions became global, between millions. In fact as of now the best studies show over 1.3 BILLION people use the Internet.

Then came Le Deluge - Spam. First thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousand of anonymous people who had nothing more than a computer and some connection to the internet, legal or illegal, started sending out hundreds of thousands, then millions of automatically addresses emails flooding servers, email boxes, and your email accounts.

Some just hacking viruses intended to crash recipients computers. Others to try the age old advertising strategy of exposing the message to the maximum number of people, in the hopes that a tiny percentage of them will respond to the ad. Just a variation by e-mail of what television does, saturate the spaces between the real program content to get a tiny fraction of watchers to respond. While annoying the 99.9% of television watchers who are not interested. And 99.99% of email recipients.

But then the variations beyond simple 'advertising' of products, from cheap unsubscribed Viagra for your sex life, trying to lure you into looking at their 'bored nice girl pictures,' to phony efforts to extract financial information out of you on the grounds some bank you never did business with is threatening to close your account, have become bizarre. Really bizarre.

I don't know how many - thousands of e-mails I have seen that either (1) tell me I won a million dollar lottery in a contest I never heard of much less entered (2) or that the writer is a high officer in charge of millions of dollars in a dormant bank account and wants to share it with me, or (3) the writer is dying of cancer or some other disease, and wants me to part with my money for them or (4) the writer wants to go into business in the U.S. with their sure fire company and have me handle the money transfers.

Since I have been an Internet provider, I know that upwards of 10,000 spam messages a day are launched in my direction.

And on and on and on. Now either those who send such spam e-mails are so stupid they think any adult who can read e-mail will fall for the lines they spew out, 99% of which are amazingly written in the same way (as if they think they have some winning formula) - not one is original enough to attract any intelligent adult's interest, or they think the rest of the world is as gullible as they seem to be.

I'd love to line up in front of my house all the spammers from across the world who waste my time - when the Internet filters for my provider, or my own servers, or my laptop firewalls don't catch it - and see what makes them tick. They are the most bizarre minds in the world. A window into all the weird minds on this planet.

And then hang them all from the nearest Old Colorado City tree for wasting my time online glancing at their mail before dumping it and getting on with my serious use of e-mail.

Vigilantes of Colorado City in 1859 hung horse thieves, would be robbers, drunks and vagrants for less.

Maybe it time to bring "people's justice" again - online.

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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments

Submitted By: Travis Duncan

posted on 3/6/2008 @ 10:03:52 AM

Rated Story

I love the Spam examples. Great stuff, Dave.

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Submitted By: Dave Hughes

posted on 3/5/2008 @ 3:55:10 PM

(Not Rated)

Second Attempt: Target 1000 Dollar Gift Card Giveaway. I have been waiting for you since to contact me for your Confirmable Bank Draft worth of TWO MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED DOLLARS which my boss left with me before he travelled out,but I did not hear from you since that time. I am Zeynba Ibrahim the only child of Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim a licensed solid mineral (gold, diamond, etc) exporter I am jonathan Kiros. from Sierra Leone. The only child of Engr.D.M Kiros, Ownner of Kiros's shipping company i am writing you from Abidjan Coted'Ivoire where i have been taking refuge after the brutal murder of my parents by the rebels. Hello! You have recieved a Hallmark E-Card. To see it, click here, Get Paid 24/7 with your own Automatic Money Machine website!, 3/5/2008, 12:00 am Due to the number of incorrect login attempts your Online Banking Account has been locked – for your security I am Mrs. Gift Duke, a widow suffering from long time cancer of the breast.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Dave Hughes

Colorado Springs , CO

Dave Hughes has posted 77 stories and 87 comments since joining on 3/1/2007. Dave Hughes 's average story rating is 4.9.

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