Spammers are always coming up with new ideas for how to get by spam filters and new ways to fool people into thinking their messages require immediate reading. And these new ideas seem to come in waves, like fashion or style trends. For example, last week (and all in one day) I received about 50 spam emails (a full 20% of the spam I get daily) in the following vein:
Serious letter. You require to read.
Essential letter. You require to read.
Momentous letter. You must to read.
Grand message. You should to read.
Very important letter. You require to read.
And now, over the last 24 hours I’ve received the following spam subjects:
fw: Please do not come to work today
RE: No work tomorrow; Office closed
Fwd: Hey our boss got fired?
Fw: Hey are they starting layoffs yet?
fwd: Offices have been closed permanently
I can’t tell if these are attempting to exploit the recipients’ fear (of losing their jobs) or their laziness (by giving them hope that they can get a day off). But it makes me wonder: Is the public’s faith in the economy and/or their employers so bad that this type of spam is believable?
Has there been any formal marketing or demographic research into the typical “Spam Consumer/Victim”? I’d love to see that stuff — I’ll bet it’s extremely harsh reading.
Comments
4 responses to “Going out of Business Spam”
Wow, that’s brilliant. In the US, a company can fire you for any reason what-so-ever, so that, coupled with a lack of pension plan for the vast majority of workers has created a loyalty rift. Large corporations (more often than smaller ones) tend to look at their employees as a necessary nuisance. Trust is earned, and needs to be from both sides. That rarely occurs these days, as there is simply no motivation.
I’d love to see a report like that too.
And like fashion trends, I’m sure this will all come around in cycles as the older audiences adapt to newer techniques and newer audiences are exposed to older ones for the first time.
Demacrats blow
Nice spelling.