How many of you reply to SPAM?

Question

I think most people know it when they see a SPAM e mail! Doesnt anyone actually reply which makes the SPAMMERS effort worthwhile? I cant believe many people do these days . How much money are the SPAMMERS making? some SPAMS dont even sell anything!

Answer 1

1. Don't reply to SPAM. Most (if not all) are using some address they picked up off of the 'net. So replying with anything is just sending a message to another innocent victim and filling their mail box.

2. Don't click on the "remove me" link. It just validates your e-mail address and makes it worth even more to spammers.

3. Don't follow links. If it says your paypal or e-bay or bank account is in jeopardy, bring up your browser and go to the site directly. Don't click on the link in the e-mail. (And I don't mean cut and paste the link from the e-mail, go directly to paypal.com or ebay.com or [yourbank].com.)

4. Don't follow e-mail stock tips. Some guy is telling you to buy this hot stock that he bought for pennies. Once it reaches some level he sells it all and makes lots of bucks. The stock tanks and might even take out the company (a sort of corporate identity theft I guess).

The sad fact is there are people who follow phishing scams and lose thousands of dollars. People who reply to Nigerian scams and lost 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars. People following spam stock tips and making the scamming stock guy rich.

And these are the illegal e-mails. Folks can end up in jail for this.

There are people who go to the sales links and getting viruses and spyware installed. At best, they're going to the links and actually getting to a real site and buying stuff.

As long as it's cheap to send millions of e-mails and the return is better than the cost, people will spam. As long as there are gullible people who get ripped off, people will scam.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is. If it's advertising in e-mail, delete it unopened.

And I believe the recent spate of e-mail with no advertising is one of two things.

1. Spammers checking for valid addresses and getting ready for a barrage of e-mails. I've noticed a significant increase in spams in the past two months.

2. Spammers trying to defeat the filtering software by throwing random paragraphs at them.

Answer 2

I never answer to spam. I make a habbit to delete the messages without even read them. I keep deleting them so I can easily check if a message has wrongly sorted to spam.
I have asked my self the same question. How much spammers win? But if you think that this e-mails are automatically sent by bots, there is not so much work for spamers.

Answer 3

I reply with a warning i made that basically says this is a private email address and i request you stop. If you fail to do so this issue with be taken up in front of an Australian Federal Court.

Spammers don’t usually want you to reply, they just want you to visit the links they provide etc. They make money by selling you products.

Scammers tend to be the ones that want replies. For example "Click here and update your PayPal account or email back your username and password."

So basically spam can work of commission/per product sold or per email send regardless. Generally the company paying for the spam to be sent to you pays another company for your email address.

Answer 4

I just junk and delete them :)

Answer 5

I never reply to SAPM.

Answer 6

Haven't yet,,,,I just delete them.

Answer 7

u can make money too