<\/strong>My Dear,<\/em><\/p>\n

In all your humble awareness, this is best understood by also playing the song If I Had a Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies at the same time. Now that you have done that, understand that I contact you only because my government has locked me inside our national brewery and I cannot get all this fine ale out of my country without your considered support. Please respond to this message by providing all your personal information, your bank and credit card account numbers, and a large bag of very salty pretzels.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yours insobriety,<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Jamie Campbell<\/em><\/p>\n

All righty, then. I suppose that my first \u2013 and last \u2013 attempt at composing a spam letter exposes me for the fraud that I am. But what if I was serious about this strange thing called spam? What if, God forbid, I got smart about the whole matter and adopted a scientific approach in implementing a targeted spam campaign? It\u2019s a dangerous thought, but it did occur to me recently that if spammers had some brain cells to rub together, they might spark a fire far worse than the ones we\u2019re already trying to douse. With that thought process in place, I began thinking about how I would approach spam. Here are the results.<\/p>\n

Please note: The following activities were imagined by a trained professional. Do not try this at home. By the way, it really does read better if you play If I Had a Million Dollars<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026I\u2019d Hire Writers with English Degrees<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I love Google Translation, but not for translating War and Peace<\/em> from its native Russian. Spam emails read like a synthesis of Revolution Number Nine<\/em> by the Beatles and the collective works of Dr. Seuss, if those works were co-written by Jack Kerouac. Don\u2019t get me wrong: I love the Beatles, Dr. Seuss and<\/em> Kerouac, but I don\u2019t experience them all at one time, any more than I dump my dinner in a blender and drink it. So for my first considered action, I would hire writers trained in English. Even if they were bad writers, they couldn\u2019t be worse than the ones currently crafting spam emails, and I use the word \u2018crafting\u2019 lightly.<\/p>\n

\u2026I\u2019d Pay Attention to the PC Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Everyone knows that smartphones, tablets and web appliances have set their sights and taken bites out of the traditional PC market for some time now; but last week, news from the financial world seemed to set the pace for the future of computing, when the giants of the tech world announced their quarterly results. Intel shaved its projections for PC sales and Microsoft\u2019s results for sales of Windows fell short for a third straight quarter. All the while, Apple happily announced that it has moved a whopping nine million iPads. \u201cThe desktop, at least for consumers, probably doesn’t have a great future, and the iPad and similar tablets can deliver a lot of the functionality of a laptop,” an analyst stated in an article<\/a> by Reuters.<\/p>\n

The face of technology is changing rapidly, and adapting to the new paradigm is a necessity for wannabe spammers. We\u2019re already seeing a shift, as evidenced by an increase in SMS spam<\/a>, and the successful spammers are going to be the ones who figure out how to utilize all facets of devices in a thoughtful and coordinated manner.<\/p>\n

\u2026I\u2019d Integrate My Attacks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Spam is like spaghetti (spamghetti?) \u2013 it gets thrown against a wall and sometimes it sticks. In fact, it\u2019s mind-boggling how poorly-contrived most spam campaigns appear to be. But what if the spam was personalized? We\u2019re already seeing it, as evidenced<\/a> by Cisco SIO\u2019s 2011 report entitled \u201cEmail Attacks: This Time It\u2019s Personal.\u201d The real opportunity is not only to identify individuals and personalize spam messages, but also to implement integrated, multi-tier attacks.<\/p>\n

People are creatures of habit and tend to lower their guard when approached three or more times. For example, I\u2019d send them a personalized email to begin with, but I\u2019d also call and ask for them by name, explaining the opportunity; and then, for good measure, I\u2019d send them an SMS message following up on the call. Y\u2019know, build up the trust before I take them for everything.<\/p>\n

\u2026I Wouldn\u2019t be Spamming Anymore<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To my point above, I wouldn\u2019t be calling them myself. Heck, I wouldn\u2019t even be spamming. I\u2019d already have my private island, fifty foot yacht, exotic pet collection, and like the song says, really expensive ketchup for my Kraft Dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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