Okay, I have a mystery that maybe you can help me solve. It's about a phenomenon that I'm too paleo-techno to understand.
At my email account, stuff that my computer/server/whatever thinks looks...well, junky...goes straight past my Inbox to my Junk box. Every day, I get at least a dozen emails (sometimes multiple dozens) routed straight to that holding pen, where they await the magic of the Delete button. Here's my question - who or what determines the particular junk mail I am sent?
Now, I came up with the idea that some magic comb or filter out there in cyberspace is busy continually monitoring my internet usage, looking for clues as to just what might interest me. The woman likes reading Tim Challies, over at Challies.com - send her an ad for some Reformed literature. - or - She checks the national weather site daily...maybe we could tempt her with a cable subscription to The Weather Channel. - or - She chats with her college kids on Facebook. The woman is obviously a mom...what have we got in stock that we could market to moms? I mean, I could understand if I got junk email offering me T-shirts featuring Sacred Sandwich cartoons at unbelievably low prices. But, nooooooo.....
At least once a week, I get a message notifying me of the huge savings available on bamboo flooring. No kidding - bamboo flooring. Just the thing for a farmhouse sitting in the middle of a hayfield in northwest Tennessee, don't you think? A couple of times a week I receive opportunities to purchase watches that look like Rolexes and purses that look like Gucci bags (not that I have ever seen a Rolex or anything Gucci - go figure). Cheap prescription meds from Canada, carpet-cleaning services, plus-size women's clothing - have I ever given anyone reason to think I'm in the market for these things? (Okay, no comment from ya'll on that last one.)
But far and away the number one type of junk mail I get - at least a couple a day - is regarding "male enhancement" drugs. Okay, I am not a male (although, yes, I do realize that Camille is a male name). Nothing - I repeat NOTHING - on my body needs to be enhanced (although I might possibly be interested in something proven to shrink body parts).
People, my junk box is starting to kind of weird me out. Maybe you can explain what's going on. I need some answers.
Oh, and what's in your Inbox?
blues in july
4 months ago
1 comment:
I don't read my junk box, unless I have just given my address to someone and there is a possibility they get filtered there.
Male enhancement spam is ubiquitous. As one of the top selling pharmaceuticals, it makes business sense to reach as many people as possible. People must actually buy it from junk e-mails too, or they wouldn't keep doing it. Either that or it is embedded with viruses designed to snare people who want cheap male enhancement.
Anytime you sign up for anything- virtual or real- there is a possibility that your e-mail address will be sold or shared, unless explicitly stated otherwise. For this reason, it is wise to maintain a separate "junk mail" account. That way when you sign up for anything you don't really care that much about- be it magazines, pizza giveaway, local *fill in the blank*- you can use this account and avoid much of the spam that accrues in your personal account.
-Dennis
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