Spam in the Age of YouTube
Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed something new in my email spam. Amidst the usual sexual advances, promises that I can massively extend my penis size and promises of Nigerian cash I’ve noticed spam messages that say “that’s a really stupid picture of you, Tom!” and “have you seen how you look in that video?” Now that YouTube, Flickr and Facebook are some of the most popular sites on the web spammers are trying to embarrass you into clicking on their links. The thing is that, for many people, there may well be some very embarrassing, possibly condemnatory videos and pictures floating around. There are definitely some pictures of me on Facebook that I would rather never have been shared. I do actually wonder how well those new spam techniques work, though.
Sometimes I wonder if all of my spam is legitimate. What if there is some doctor somewhere who desperately wants to increase the size of my penis? He’s just sitting there, wondering why I’ve never replied. “Who wouldn’t want a bigger penis?” he’s asking himself. Nearby one of the hundreds of thousands of sexy women who’ve been trying to get in touch with me sighs as she looks longingly at a website full of embarrassing pictures of videos of me. Bank accounts of tragically killed rich diplomats are so full of cash that they’re bursting, yet all that money goes unused because my help is needed to access it.
On an unrelated note, I’ve reinstalled Diablo II in order to try to dredge up some excitement over Diablo III. Playing Diablo II again had a pretty profound effect on me, actually. After only a few minutes I decided to reinstall Fallout so I exited Diablo II and jumped into the best isometric 2D RPG ever made. That then got me excited about Fallout 3 because they’ve decided to do some new, exciting things with their popular intellectual property. Once I checked out some cool new screenshots and videos from Fallout 3 I realized just how sad it is that Blizzard isn’t doing anything new or interesting with Diablo III and I remembered why I’ve never really bothered with them. They’ve only ever made three games - they just patch them very infrequently.
Sphere It
Haha….
Comment by Krista — July 4, 2008 @ 10:53 am
Huh, that’s some advanced spam you’re getting there. Mine seems boring in comparison, with the possible exception of that one mail promising me easy access to vicodin pills. It’s amusing, because during that time I had hurt my leg and was limping like Greg House.
Jokes aside, I’m afraid that this kind of spam will start fooling more people. I mean, people have fallen for much sillier things in the past, and as you point out, almost everyone has at least one embarrassing photo out there.
People are more likely to think “Damn, not THAT photo! I need to check that out!” than “That Prince of Nigeria sounds like a reliable guy, I’ll help him out” and then click on a suspicious link. The whole guilt trip thing could be very persuasive.
It would be a bummer though if that certain Prince of Nigeria is still waiting help from the outside world, and wondering why foreigners obviously hate him so much.
Comment by George K — July 5, 2008 @ 11:03 am