Spammers Make $7,000 a Day

[0over0]

You'd think for 7 grand a day they could at least hire someone to write comprehensible spam. That would be an interesting study--does the comprehensibility of the spam make any difference to the rate of response? If not, then most of those clicks would probably be mistakes, in which case just getting to the site--which is all they measured--would be all that happened.
In other words, they are jumping to conclusions about whether or not someone would actually put through the payment (since they end it with an error message once their site is reached). Therefore, there may be a lot less money in this than they think.

I'm no expert, though. Perhaps I should ask my good friend, who's a Nigerian prince....

 

[VondeVon]

How do they get the money though? Anyone know?????

Well the article said ".2% of people were dumb enough to actually attempt to buy the product." which makes me think that the money comes from people who actually attempt to buy the fake products - via their credit card numbers being recorded or through a direct transaction, perhaps.

I saw something on tv a few years ago, where some idiot had sent over $15,000 to 'paper spammers' for various investments such as partial ownership of land or stocks etc. All he got in return for something like seven years of this, were plain printed certificates.

The worst bit was when the man whined and blustered about how if all 'them smart blokes like doctors and lawyers' could get fooled, then people like him had no chance.

No. No, you're just a moron.

 

[McMullen]

Did the math. For every 1.7 Billion Emails sent, 85 people try to buy the product

1,700,000,000 X 0.25 = 425,000,000
425,000,000 X 0.0001 = 42,500
42,500 X 0.002 = 85

Nah man,
1,700,000 X .25 = 425,000
425,000 X .01 = 4250
4250 X .02 = 85
So in a really weird, roundabout way, you were right.

Percentage fail. 0.01% (one hundredth of a percent) is .0001, and 0.2% is 0.002. The guy you quoted had it right.

If 1 is 100% then 0.1 is 10% and then 0.01 is 1%.

If 1 is 100% then 0.1 is 10% and then 0.01 is 1%. You really should study the pre-highschool stuff before saying people failed.

Edit: Oh wait I didn't notice the parenthesis

I have one word for you, just one word:

Lololololololololololololololololololololololololololol!!!!!

 

[thisguyfromthere]

I'm willing to bet that money will be small comfort once they end up in the most painful corner of Hell. Satan hates spam too, y'know.

 

[Speakercone]

HUnh.

Now my question is, how long can you make that a lucritive career, and how do you report it to your local/state/federal tax retrieving body? And if this is Tax free, I you can pretty much be sure that 9in the US at least) the IRS would like to have a small discussion about where all this money you have is coming from.

EDIT: Also, I think I just found the most perfect example of "dont hate the player, hate the game" that I've ever seen

Usually ou register yourself / your group as a company.
Online marketing is a perfectly legal (this includes spam, unless it's coupled with offences like phishing or computer hijacking) and, if you know what you're doing, also very lucrative field of business.

This is only true if the spammers are actually providing the product or service they advertised. If I pay for a sandwich, I need to receive the sandwich otherwise the transaction was fraudulent on the part of the vendor.

The tip I give to the internet-uninitiated is essentially "assume it's a scam until proven otherwise." also "if you didn't go looking for it, don't buy it."

 

[Reed Spacer]

Oddly, one might even say aptly enough, if the title were: Spammers eat a barrel of dicks a day, this would have also been true.

 

[Mittens The Kitten]

Call me crazy, but I want more than seven grand for my soul.

You're crazy, 2.5million a year is worth my soul, or anyone elses.

 

[Callate]

Call me crazy, but I want more than seven grand for my soul.

You're crazy, 2.5million a year is worth my soul, or anyone elses.

Yes, I understand the math. Still not worth it. Even assuming you can make that much money every day, you're still doing it in a way that actively makes the world a worse place and negatively influences the life of everyone you interact with in the venture.

On my worst day, I still don't have it in me to inflict irritation on a million people I don't know.

 

[Vrach]

Umm, just thinking here, but that 7k sum is likely to be factoring in the spammers that have the huge networks? How much does a regular Joe spammer make?

 

[VanityGirl]

Spam Bots HOOO!!!

But seriously, that is very surprising. It makes me want to just quit going to college. XD

 

[ark123]

I love this part:
"Here's how a botnet works: You're browsing around the internet, and for whatever reason, you get infected with a virus."

Right, for whatever reason. You're using google, you're reading articles on CNN and BAM, virus.