Spammers Targeting Geeks For No Good Reason

from the bad-target-marketing dept

Mon, Oct 2nd 2006 3:28pm — Mike Masnick

Generally speaking, if you're looking for a group of folks who almost universally dislike spam and would like to see it gone from existence, a bunch of techies is probably that group. So it's hard to see the value in spammers specifically targeting techies with spam. It seems that some spammers are going a page beyond their use of classic literature to fool spam filters, and are now starting to include various geek terms and phrases, hoping to bypass various bayesian filters, or (perhaps) make them useless. Of course, this involves the same sort of fallacy as the one used by spammers who refuse to remove people who request removal. Spamming these people is simply bad business. They're not going to buy from the spam. It's only going to be a waste of time. The only purpose is basically to create a nuisance -- which is probably why it's being done. However, you'd have to think there are plenty of better, and more lucrative, ways for a spammer to target spam.

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30 Comments

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Eric, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:22pm

lol spame me all you want ill just read the ones from friends click select all and then delete lol
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u no, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:37pm

whatever
God bless G-mail. Not one piece of spam the entire time i have had an account.
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Justin, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:47pm

I wouldn't say that so fast... I used to say the same and now I get 14 pieces a day minimum.
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dbb, 2 Oct 2006 @ 4:58pm

Spamming sysadmins?
This has actually been going on for a long time. In general, spammers are barely smart enough to use the idiot-proof software that they bought for $199, and often they screw that up (you have all seen that in your inbox: "Dear %[recipient] You have won..." or the empty email that you have received and which make you say "WTF???"

And then when they finally figure out how to work it, they send spam mail and are shut down in about 45 seconds, and send some email that says PHArmxcZY.

OK, if I have money to spend, I would definitely not send money to someone who can't spell Pharmacy, Viagara, or anything else related to his post, or someone who disguises what he is trying to sell.

Oh, you say that he changed the spelling so that it would get past your spam blocker? Let's translate that. Joe says "I don't want Viagara spam." Spammer says "I will send a misspelled, offshore, poorly-done message to a guy who doesn't want this crap in the first place, and I will send it over and over again to get into his good graces."

Idiots. Most spammers will never figure out why they fail in everything they try.

So sad.

Dave
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:21pm

Like anything else in this world it's all about the money. If we started bombarding Viagra with a complaint for every piece of spam we got; then I think they would get the message not to give incentives for advertising their product through such a medium.
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?, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:36pm

Computer nerds vs. Computer nerds!
The battle for the universe....
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pagerwho, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:42pm

IBM had the right idea
Spam the spammers. Implement DOS attacks on the hackers, spam them, hack them, or do the Republican thing, and declare an illegal war against them!
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charlie potatoes, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:50pm

After all the rhetoric one indisputable fact remains..
the smarmy cock suckers are making money...
when it stops being profitable...spam will cease.
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AvyTech, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:59pm

Re: whatever
Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree. And when the spam DOES come, it goes straight to the nifty folder. Out of sight, out of mind.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:59pm

the only reason they keep spaming is because people that dont know much about computers buy the stuff, like i left my norton off after i formated and i got slamed with maleware in the first day unprotected.... basicly the pop ups where send 20 bucks and we will stop sending you pop ups... im sure that people that dont know its a scam send in money to get rid of there problems...
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AvyTech, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:59pm

Re: whatever
Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree. And when the spam DOES come, it goes straight to the nifty folder. Out of sight, out of mind.
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huh, 2 Oct 2006 @ 5:59pm

Dave... Viagra, not Viagara. Don't tell me you're a spammer. :p
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DV Henkel-Wallace, 2 Oct 2006 @ 6:00pm

Re: Spamming sysadmins?
I agree with every point of yours but one. The idea of the misspellings (I believe) is that (they hope) it will get past the _ISP's_ spem filters and then some hapless loser will open it.

Sadly, sometimes they're right.
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gudsport, 2 Oct 2006 @ 6:00pm

Pagerwho?
You are right Pagerwho. It is all George Bush's fault! Next item to blame on Bush?
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Faz, 2 Oct 2006 @ 7:06pm

Re: whatever
"whatever by u no on Oct 2nd, 2006 @ 4:37pm

God bless G-mail. Not one piece of spam the entire time i have had an account."

YESSS i love it... although in GMAIL... the auto ads that show up... in the SPAM folder the ads for SPAM (the product) show up.. i love it.. HAHAHAA
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Eric, 2 Oct 2006 @ 7:13pm

Spammers?
The hell with the spammers. I want to get my hands on the assholes that are stupid enough to give them money. Talk about stupid people!
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Bob Dole, 2 Oct 2006 @ 7:14pm

The little blue pill
Just kidding, it's not me, really. Seriously, spammers are morons. If they'd avoided spamming the geeks and especially the rabid antispammers there'd be 1000 times more money in spamming. The select rich few would be mega rich and the comfortable would be rich and the rest of us would be none the wiser. They could've been the CEOs of Internet advertising but instead they're the pimps.
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sendeth, 2 Oct 2006 @ 7:59pm

spam king
you all remember the russian spam king, right??? he doesn't do much anymore other than sit in the ground. it'll happen again eventually.

also, you should know that like 90% of all spam is sent by 10 companies. the government has a list of the top ten. names, assresses, and so on. instead, they do stupid crap like attach gambling bills to important port security bills. hello bush, line item veto!!!

term limits for senators. that's all i have to say.
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A chicken passeth by, 2 Oct 2006 @ 10:44pm

...A spammer's goal is to make sure his ad gets into your box, NOT to make you buy anything - he can't care less if you do. It's just like TV advertising - the goal is simply to make sure it's there, AND you catch a glimpse of it. Advertisers will NOT be able to earn money if they have to promise increased sales - because it's not garunteed.
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Stephen Paulger, 3 Oct 2006 @ 1:52am

Bayesian Filters
I think spammers problems have been demonstrated in this email, some spam filters are very good at catching spam. So I think spammers are deliberately trying to associate tech words with spam so that the guy administrating the email server is affected when he recieves techy emails that end up being classed as spam. A lot of companies complain at their tech departments for the fact that sometimes legitimate email ends up in the spam folder (this has happened to me on gmail too). If it affects the tech guys too then the admins might have to think about removing or lowering the effectiveness of spam filters. Thus allowing more spam through to everyone, techy or not.
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Roy, 3 Oct 2006 @ 4:18am

Spam in the box
Speaking of targeting, there's also the practice of sending spam to mail aliases required by RFC2142. One of my domains' email continually gets spam addressed to root, admin, webmaster, etc. One might think that a spammer would know better than to send blue-pill pitches directly to a sysadmin, but apparently not. Is it likely to generate a sale? I doubt it, but it does point to the probability that the real money in spamming is being a spam service bureau. Those admin addresses, more or less guaranteed to exist, would be easier to generate than trawling for actual users' addresses. 100,000 domain names * 10 RFC2142 aliases each = "1 million guaranteed good email addresses".
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David, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:21am

GPL
I've gotten spam with sections of the GPL in it. If that's not targeting geeks, I don't know what is
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:38am

Re: Spamming sysadmins?
...why they fail in everything...

I'd like to see some concrete proof of this. If spamming wasn't achieving a result it would DECREASE. I don't see this happening. If anything it's increasing!

Unless you have some hard data to back up what seems to me as ignorance I suggest you stop and consider that there are likely more sufficiently skilled idiots in the world that fall for this shit as you think. I don't take spammers for a dumb bunch and if you do I think the you're either one of em and think it's funny or your dumber than you think they are.
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Ironicnet, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:39am

Who's the idiot?
Ok, the spammers are annoying... they mispell the words... but... Who the hell buys what they sell?? who can trust in some company, some guy o whatever the spammer is and buy him something?? Because, if spammers exists its because there r some ppl buying it!, its like child porn... it wouldn't exist if weren't a market out there... But who can buy V1ag1^a or other stuff?? does anyone buys what they offer?? thats my question... thanks
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:40am

Re:
I doubt Viagra has anything to do with it - it's likely third party vendors that buy in bulk and are trying to undercut retailers.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Oct 2006 @ 8:41am

Re: IBM had the right idea
duhhh... heh...
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The Original Just Me, 3 Oct 2006 @ 9:16am

I doubt the real Pfizer is using spammers
I think if you buy your 'viagra' from a spam message you deserve whatever it is they put in the fake pills.
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Wizard Prang, 3 Oct 2006 @ 9:49am

Viagara?
:)
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Masternerd, 3 Oct 2006 @ 12:58pm

Easy way?
I think spammers believe that spam is an easy way to advertise. It dosn't work and techies are the wrong group to target! http://masternerd.com
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renegade42, 4 Oct 2006 @ 8:47pm

return to sender
when will one of these geeks get enough of it and make a "return to sender" button so we can send all this crap back where it came from....
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