the kind spammer
I've started moderating the incoming comments on this blog -- yes, yes, all three that I get each year, I get it, you're funny -- because I wasn't able to delete all the comment spam fast enough. So this means I now have to scan through a long list of recently posted comments whenever I get a spare moment every few days and look for comments that I want to approve. And in doing so, I've noticed something kind of odd: Apparently, I've got a spammer who feels bad about filling up my blog with comments that link to all sorts of shady Web sites that sell questionable pharmaceuticals.
How do I know he (or she) feels bad about spamming my site? Check out the sort of notes he's leaving next to all the shady links:
- "Sorry that I did that"
- "Deeply sorry for that"
- "Really sorry for this"
- "Please don't be angry"
- "Please forgive me"
Having fought (and even associated with) these people for a decade now, I'd say it's more likely a statistical part of his campaign. Spammers, although typically illiterate in English, aren't careless. Spam is their livelihood. Spamming is based on psychology and technology and implemented through formulas, statistics, and curves. Multiply that simple blurb by a million addresses and you get a hundred thousand recipients who see it, which may mean a ten thousand people who chuckle in leu of reporting it to an anti-spam house... or perhaps a thousand of us who think, "sorry for what? let me see what he's sending that he's so sorry about", which equates to 10 people who say, "Man, I could really use that, come to think of it." Ten people times $29.95 is $299.50 in sales which could mean $29.00 in the spammers pocket, which might seem like $500 to you or me, here in America. Fuzzy math, I know, but theories like these are the basis for spam. So, there.