Spam Makes Me Want To Kill.....

I guess it isn't the Spam per say, but the end users who CONTINUOUSLY complain about it!

Is it really that hard to click delete? I get Spam on a daily basis, loads of it, but I never feel any sense of anger towards Spam. Furthermore, doesn't anybody get it!?! Spam is a business just like any other, you advertise, people buy stuff, you make profit. Then if you are smart at peak times of the year, you increase the advertising and reap the financial rewards.

Think of it like this, every year starting in October the weekly flyers you receive in your mailbox at home sky rocket, until you are receiving enough flyers to wallpaper every room in your home with them. THIS IS SPAM PEOPLE!!! Think about it...did you request it? Are you being asked to buy something? Do you sometimes react by going somewhere to buy an advertised product? Are we seeing the parallels here??

Spam is nothing more than advertising a product through the Internet instead the regular mail system. Sure they are trying to sell Viagra and stocks, but it is still the same. Can you truly blame the Spammers, aside from the obvious ethical issues? Think about it...

Spammers have a room of computers that send out thousands of emails a minute at a fraction of the cost traditional mailing would cost. Advertising without paper on the Internet (email) costs pennies. Let's break down the numbers. Let's aim low

One computer sends out 100 emails an hour...NOTE: After initial setup the Spammer does very little in the way of work; the computer is doing the work. So, the computer pumps 100 emails/hour; that equals 2400 emails a day and roughly 30 days in a month equaling 72,000 emails a month.
The statistics on unsolicted advertising and purchase rates is about 2%. This means up to 2% of all people who receive the unsolicited emails will actually buy something. Which may not seem like much, but read on. So in our example we'll use 1%, which equals 720 sales per month. Most products being sold in this fashion are generally lost cost/high profit items, but for our example we will aim low. If the profit on the product is $5, the Spammer makes $3600 profit a month on the products. Minus monthly expenses for an Internet connection, software and buying an email list (if they aren't generating their own lists)...let's just say the Spammer clears $2500/monthly. Not bad for having the computer do all of work while they sit back in their big-ass recliners watching the money roll in.

But wait there is more. If one computer can crank out $2500 of profit monthly then why wouldn't you buy 10 computers and make $25,000 monthly!! The amount of hours doesn't really change because the emails are all the same and software does all the work. But you can reach the World.

Powerful stuff. I know some of you don't think this is possible but really it is happening. So, why don't we all do it? Because it is not the right thing to do.

The bottom line is Spam is not going anywhere and stopping it ALL is impossible. Spammers buy the latest software to test their new Spam emails trying to find ones that slip through. Then stock pile those emails until the best advertising times and fire them off.

Companies fight daily with the issue of blocking of Spam from reaching the end user. It is estimated that 80% -90% of all email received by a company is Spam! That is a staggering number.

The frustrating part isn't the Spam it is the end users who keep complaining like they are such victims and like we are doing nothing. Deal with it and delete. If you are an end user in the company you work for, please do not badger the IT staff about YOUR "Spam problem", they are working on it. Trust me. I suggest IT departments try shutting off the current Spam filters and see how happy end users will be.

Now go and find an IT guy and give him a hug!

That is my two cents