Does That Spam Sound Too Good To Be True?

Increasingly spam seems to be filled with offers like "Just (sign up for our credit card, subscribe to this magazine, apply for a refinance, fill out this survey) and we'll send you a free Ipod!"

These offers are typically peddled by third-parties who are paid commissions for every new customer they recruit. A new credit card sign up might net the spammer about $50.

If sending a single unwanted message costs $.01 per hundred sent, a spammer would only have to get about 1 in 500,000 people to go for the offer to make money.

It's always about the Benjamins - the reasons spammers do what they do is to make money.

But wait, don't they have to cough up that IPOD for you? Well - you're dealing with people who are basically stealing resources by sending spam. How likely do you think they'll actually cough up your `prize'?

http://www.ripoffreport.com/ deals with scams and says that spammer usually don't make good on these kinds of offers.

The lesson? If you get an offer that sounds good via spam - ignore it.

If you get too much spam to handle - check out an antispam filter like SpamButcher. SpamButcher's spam catcher uses fuzzy logic to stop up to 98% of spam.

SpamButcher can be used as an Outlook Express email filter or with any other POP3 supporting email client.

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