Legal Commentary

What's the Point of This Stuff?

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

Most of the time I understand the theory behind email sp*m. People are hoping I’ll click a link or reply. In the end they either want to sell me something, or they want to spoof some information from me. Similarly with blog sp*m — either it’s ads, or an attempt to raise their Google rankings by showing a link from here (with a decent Google rank) to there.

But there are two kinds of sp*m I do not get at all.

The first kind is the blog comment with a link to a web site of garbage characters. Usually when I click, there’s nothing there. What’s the point? Is the botnet just practicing?

The second kind are email messages like the one I just got twice today, which I quote in its entirety, compete with original formatting:

Dear Sir,
I will like to know if it is possible for me to make
reservations of plane tickets in your travel agency for one of our
members and to pay remotely with international card accorded with
authorizations.
I remain on standby of a favourable response from your office. Please
confirm this booking and forwards fare as soon as possible.[Accra to
Cairo to Paris]
Name: [1] KOFI OPOKU
Date is 15th of November 27th of November 2008.
Best greetings.
Dr Aileen Winch

Any ideas?

Full post as published by Discourse.net on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).