Re: [Asrg] hiring challenge responders

> From: Dave Aronson <dja2003@hotpop.com>

> ...
> Does anybody have any actual numbers on how good a return spammers get on 
> their spam, in terms of, say, cents per thousand spams?  I suspect this 
> will be very hard to measure for spam that works indirectly (like 
> getting people to go to a URL that does not have an embedded tracking 
> number), and vastly different per category, but there may be SOME hard 
> data out there....

I suspect anyone who claims to be able to answer that question is
either a spammer and so a pathological, unbelievable lier, or a
poseur of a lier.  The amount of lawbreaking in spam ensures that
those who really and actually make a profit will keep quiet.

Occassionally there are hints of believable numbers, such as the recent
excitement about the money made by selling "Iraq playing cards."
See http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1443978,00.html
and http://www.iht.com/articles/99019.htm
However, such notes are so rare that they only show how little is known.

It's worth distinguishing between the senders of bulk email who
charge for that service and those who hope to get rich selling whatever.

>  > Free providers often impose delays of more than 10 seconds for
>  > account creation.
>
> Heck, that much delay can be imposed by normal data processing, web 
> congestion, etc....

That's most of what I meant.

> ...
> for different providers, and configgable so you can keep up with changes 
> in their screens.  Of course I'll leave it as an exercise for the 
> lurking spammers and spam-symps, but I can easily imagine someone 
> writing this sucker and selling it to spammers.

Or again, selling it to "home workers" via spam.

Vernon Schryver    vjs@rhyolite.com

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