Comments on: Spam ROI: Profit on 1 in 12.5m Response Rate

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:40:35 +0000

I cannot understand how the hell these spammers are able to hijack so many servers to do their dirty work, surely your going to be able to tell something is up if your administrating it and if it isn’t in use why not just disconnect it from the network?

By: Meitar

Meitar — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:48:25 +0000

I think these numbers make it clear that the only real solution to this problem is better technical education for non-technical people. I don't think the people that fall for spam messages are "idiots," but they are certainly ignorant of the facts! We might be able to make better spam filters, but that is still effort in completely the wrong place considering these figures.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:00:35 +0000

I’m too tired to post my reply maybe a nice cash incentive will sweeten the deal. If anyone would like to receive my take on the problem then please send me $500 :p. Gotta be worth a try.

By: jeffvdovjak

jeffvdovjak — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:30:12 +0000

Hasn’t evolution taken it’s course yet? Haven’t those who click the “buy now” button in spam all fallen off the edge of the planet?

By: jeffvdovjak

jeffvdovjak — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:28:05 +0000

Hasn’t evolution taken it’s course yet? Haven’t those who click the “buy now” button in spam all fallen off the edge of the planet?

By: simsim

simsim — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:58:32 +0000

@ mattymcg:

Here’s the research in PDF. Judge for yourself.

http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/networking/2008-ccs-spamalytics.pdf

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:36:45 +0000

mattymcg, you bring up a good point.
-Did this team simply hijack the botnet and send a basic spam message (meaning most spam filters would catch it)?
-Did the team consist of any former professional spammers who knew how to avoid spam filters at the same rate as normal spam?

I think it’s a good first attempt but if their fake spam message was viewed by 90% less people than normal spam, and simply dropped into a “Spam” email box, the real click through rate of actual spam could be way higher.

By: mattymcg

mattymcg — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:08:21 +0000

I do wonder about a research team that performs their research by sending more spam… OK, we have an insight into the numbers now—but surely they contributed to the problem during their test? And given they weren’t experienced spammers, I’m betting they hadn’t optimised their copy to get through filters like I’m sure many successful spammers do. Questionable research IMO.

By: funkysouth

funkysouth — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:38:35 +0000

I’m sold. So how do I start spamming? :)

haha great post

By: BrianOConnell

BrianOConnell — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:11:39 +0000

I’m sold. So how do I start spamming? :)