Conversation.

In response to Stu's Blog, I had the (mis)fortune of having a brief discussion with a spammer the other day, and I felt I should share. I don't really know why, but it does give an insight into the mindset.

The original email arrived on my work server. It was your standard pyramid spam affair about sending a nominal amount (£3) to the person at the top of the list, removing their name and adding yourself to the bottom before forwarding on to everyone you know and any random emails you can come up with. I had been having a bad day and decided to respond - I know the vast majority of the time spammers use fake addresses and ID but just this once it seemed to be a genuine soul.

If you don't like bad language, stop reading now, otherwise the rest of the conversation went as follows:

To: pb1971@ntlworld.com

Don't be a cock.

I like to keep things to the point. As I suggested above, I was pissed off (not least at having my time wasted) and so vented my anger. I was somewhat surprised when he responded...

pb1971@ntlworld.com Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 2:39 PM

Peter,

Tried this 3 times £6,400 first time, £8,800 second time and £6,900 last time!!!!!

Don't mind been a cock if I can earn £22,000+ in 2 months for doing nothing!!!!!

Anyway must get back to watching the cricket with a few beers in my back garden.

Enjoy your day in the office.

Kindest Regards!

This really annoyed me, not least because he was treating scamming people out of their money as a good thing (regardless of the individual value). But the fact that he truly felt he was on to a good thing yet causing annoyance to others somehow irked me - was this jealousy? Maybe, but I replied...

To: "pb1971@ntlworld.com"

Ok, I'm going to be blunt here... in the UK, pyramid schemes are illegal. Your email promoted a pyramid scheme which you are evidently a part of. You already know this, so I'll move on.

Have you thought about the person at the bottom of the pyramid? The one paying out the £3 (however "low-risk") but still losing out? I bet you haven't.

Do you stop to consider the impact that the mass daily deluge of spam (of which your original email was a part) has on mail servers? If you think I'm joking, read this link.

But I'll bet you don't care about that either.

Have you considered that the scheme you are promoting is against Paypals Terms and Conditions? I quote: "You may not use PayPal to send or receive payments for any form of multi-level marketing programs (including online payment randomizers), as well as matrix, pyramid and Ponzi schemes, "get rich quick" scheme, or other similar ventures."

No? No care about that? Have you earned that money, or have you stolen it through fraud and deception? Can you 100% guarantee that everything you promise in that email will come to fruition?

As I said before, you are a cock. But I will clarify: You are a selfish, self indulgent, mal-informed piece of filth. I quite seriously, and without a quiver in my heart hope that someone pissed in your beer.

I will, and do enjoy my day in the office. A long term investment, which I know is within the ethics of the norms of society.

Yours,
Peter Bancroft

OK, so I lied about enjoying my work, but even still I eagerly await his next reply, though I fear I may be left hanging.