[SpamCop-List] Re: Why do people spam?

[N. Miller]

In article <co55f4$c12$1 at news.spamcop.net>, Stewart Gordon says...

> I'm made to wonder why spammers bother.

I suspect that a lot of spammers don't actually sell the products/services 
that they spamvertise; rather, they take money from those who want to 
advertise their products/services. Those people actually pay pennies per 
thousands of spam messages delivered, so the more messages delivered, the 
more money the spammer earns.

How does a spammer know that his message was delivered if he uses 
phoney/forged email addresses? I believe he can pick up the SMTP codes 
through the proxies he uses. I watched the same spammer make 20 delivery 
attempts, switching proxies between attempts, trying to find an unblocked 
proxy. The only reason he could know to do that is by the 5xx reject code my 
server was sending him. He actually did find an unblocked proxy on the 21st 
attempt, and stopped trying when he got the SMTP 220 "Message accepted". 
Others just give up sooner.

Since he is getting paid "per piece delivered", it is in his interest to 
deliver as many pieces as possible. There are other methods, for other 
reasons. The most important thing to remember, though, is that the spammer 
really believes that he is not a spammer. He really believes that those who 
attempt to block his messages are not the recipients, but the "anti-business 
terrorists", or competitive big business. He sees himself as some kind of 
heroic small businessman out to take on the Goliaths of the business world 
to bring you products/services that you really, really, seriously need.

He is suffering from psychotic delusions...

-- 
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint