As Email is entering it’s fifth decade, I’ve noticed that the quantity of spam reaching my inbox has dramatically declined. Not only that, the spam is becoming far more interesting.
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\nMost of what I would have considered spam years ago are advertising I voluntarily subscribe to. For example, email from Sears, MacMall, ThinkGeek, Cheaper Than Dirt, and others are advertising I want to see. Really! I mean, it’s still technically spam because it’s like “junk mail,” but I’m subscribing to it on purpose.<\/p>\n
The bulk of stuff that annoyed me years ago seems to be subsiding. I no longer get four or five requests for ED medication every hour. And the porn spam has subsided, although I suffered a spate of it recently. No images, just some bizarre text like:<\/p>\n
Big ***ty blonde anime
\nmilitaristic status quo and war forever. Who perhaps prefer a futureDoors were slammed and Ljotur shouted a command to the drivers. So what do you want us for? Floyd asked.loud voice that slashed the silence<\/p><\/blockquote>\nNow the first line is obviously porn, although it’s just a text link, but What the heck does that text mean? Is it tracking information? Does random English like that entice me to click the link and see the anime?<\/p>\n
The rest of the spam is pretty interesting stuff, especially recently. Of course, it helps to put that into perspective.<\/p>\n
My ISP flags spam messages by prefixing the word “SPAM” to each subject line. It’s pretty good at identifying such messages. Normally they wouldn’t be downloaded, but I changed the setting to download the messages and deal with them myself. The result is an interesting collection, but still good stuff compared to a decade ago.<\/p>\n
The SPAM 10 years ago was terrible. it was more like the porn example above: Random text, dozens of links, some poor graphics. And it was shady stuff, as well: Cheap mortgages, life insurance, overseas prescription drugs, and lots of porn. Sometimes it would come in batches, say 70 duplicates of the same message.<\/p>\n
Today the stuff flagged by my ISP as SPAM is actually well-done marketing. Unlike the ads I’ve subscribed to, they are services and products I don’t need or want, but they’re all pretty decent looking.<\/p>\n
Some junk does filter in, occasionally. It makes me feel nostalgic.<\/p>\n
I once received a spate of Russian spam. I have no idea what they were advertising, but it came in buckets. Today I’m getting some Arabic spam, but not as much as I once did. The Russian stuff still comes in, but it’s a lot more brief, just a few lines of text.<\/p>\n
Overall, however, the volume of spam seems to have subsided and the quality improved. It’s not that I want spam, but I’m more tolerable of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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