On April 25, 2004 at 22:18 chromi(_at_)chromatix(_dot_)demon(_dot_)co(_dot_)uk
(Jonathan Morton) wrote:
By contrast, the transportation costs of e-mail are practically nil.
No they're not.
Yes they are.
No they're not.
Yes they are.
No they're not...
Yes they are.
I can see we are now in a context-free loop.
As founder and CEO of an ISP for these past ~15 years I actually
provide e-mail systems to the general public and do the budgets etc so
have some actual, current, knowledge about the costs.
And you...?
Spammers happily paid for phat pipes to send mail through, before
widespread blacklisting forced them into using zombies. The cost is,
and has always been, the recipient's time spent in sifting through the
mess. (I count the recipient's ISP in this as well.)
Spammers use zombies for two major reasons:
1. IP mobility - to avoid blacklisting as you say.
2. Free resources - the economics of spamming is such that they must
steal resources, they could never pay for what they consume, their
service just isn't valuable enough which is why it tends to revolve
around cheesy come-ons for mostly phony penis enlargement pills and
similar.
Point 2 is in direct contradiction to what you asserted, that they
"happily paid for phat pipes", can you tell me what you base that
assertion on?
The important point is that what spammers sell is CRIME.
They don't sell advertising, any more than a guy who sells stolen
watches out of the back of his car is selling watches.
You might end up with a watch, but the value of his service is CRIME,
being able to offer you one cheaper than one might reasonably expect
because it's stolen, his costs are nearly zero.
The same can be said of spammers.
They employ zombies and open relays etc because that is the crime they
are selling.
If the spammer had to provide the service legally he'd have to charge
many times what he charges, probably some astronomical sum to slam
100M mailboxes w/ a penis enlargement ad, just for a comparison paper
email to 100M in the US would cost around $2M in postage alone.
I'll wildly guess that for a legitimate advertiser $100,000 would be a
very reasonable charge for sending email to 100M mailboxes, assuming
such a thing existed. That's around 1/10th cent per piece.
What do you imagine a spammer charges to send 100M pieces? $100?
Probably around that.
Now, tell me what your brain says to you when someone offers you a
brand new Rolex in the box for $100? Howsabout $10? Howsabout 10c?
Anyhow, just like the watch, the customer might ultimately get some
advertising (and that watch *might* be a rolex for $100), but the
actual service is crime.
Just like you could steal a watch for yourself, you could spam for
yourself, but there is a certain wisdom in paying a criminal to do it
for you.
Thus, all spammers are criminals.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
--
-Barry Shein
Software Tool & Die | bzs(_at_)TheWorld(_dot_)com |
http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
The World | Public Access Internet | Since 1989 *oo*
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