This is new...

From: Captain Napalm <spc_at_armigeron.com>
Date: Wed Apr 15 01:26:31 1998

It was thus said that the Great Jack Peacock once stated:
>
> But consider, what kind of response rate do spammers get? Now junk
> snail mailers have to actually pay per piece, although at a reduced
> rate. They have to make the junk mail attractive to readers so they can
> get a high enough response rate to justify the mailing. Maybe we need
> the same mechanism for mass commercial postings. In other words, the
> ISP specifies in the terms of service that mass commercial mailings (aka
> spam) are charged at the same mailing rates as the local post office,
> something around 20 cents per item. Now you have a legal means to get
> back if the ISP catches a spammer, because they are liable for the
> contracted costs.

  Having been involved with a spamming incident with a former client of ours
(note former - this incident was the final cause of our breaking
relationships, but anyway ... ) I was dismayed at the actual positive
responce to the spam the client sent out - nearly 40% was positive! Of
course, the other 60% made it clear it wasn't appriciated.

  Snail junk mailers are estatic when they receive a 3% response rate and
usually only expect a 1 or 2% rate. UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) is
so dirt cheap that even a .1% or .01% may generate enough economic incentive
to continue (sadly enough).

  Then again, having done some work on a list of email addresses [1] it
didn't terribly surprise me that nearly half were unusable after applying
certain criteria to the addresses [2], so it may be that the only people who
are really making money at UCE are those selling email addresses ("500
million email addresses for only $19.95! While supplies last!"), selling
spam software ("Send out 500 million messages in 1 hour using a 14.4
connection! Only $59.95! While supplies last!") or doing the actual bulk
remailing ("We'll send out 500 million copies of your message to the world
for only $9.95! Hurry, while our connections last!").

  Sorry, but I can't relate this to the charter of the list, but maybe this
is critical enough to to let slip.

  -spc (Who has an account just for spam mail ... )

[1] One of our web sites has a form that collects email address for
        people that come to the site. And people do leave their real
        email address. The ones that know better don't leave a valid
        email address.

[2] Basically, does it match
        [A-Za-z0-9_]+_at_[a-zA-Z][A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.['com'|'net'|'edu'...] ?
        There are ways to make the selection even better, but I'll refrain
        from going further here.
Received on Wed Apr 15 1998 - 01:26:31 BST