Who distributes spam?
Tthere are very few reputable marketers using spam to advertise goods and services. On the contrary, the most commonly seen spams advertise:
- Chain letters.
- Pyramid schemes (including multilevel marketing, or MLM).
- Other "Get Rich Quick" or "Make Money Fast" schemes.
- Offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic web sites.
- Offers of software for collecting e-mail addresses and sending spam.
- Offers of bulk e-mailing services for sending spam.
- Stock offerings for unknown start-up corporations.
- Quack health products and remedies.
- Illegally pirated software ("Warez").
Sadly, it is not easy to prosecute! Many spammers operate servers from countries with lax laws or no laws at all to deal with spamming. Chasing spammers through the courts in these countries is impossible. Spammers also have at their disposable thousands of personal computers around the world that have been hacked. Unknown to their owners, spammers are using these PCs to distribute their mail. For the recipients of this spam, the mail originates from the hacked PC and there is no way to trace it back to the spammer.
Spammers will continue to operate as long as a small percentage respond to spam email. The response rates may be very low, but the cost of sending out vast quantities of spam is also low.
