I Heart Spam: E-Martyrs Endure 30-Days of Nonstop Spam

Starting tomorrow 50 people will subject themselves to 30 days of nonstop spam. These spam martyrs will be participating in McAfee's S.P.A.M. (Spammed Persistently All Month) Experiment. Okay, we know it's a crass marketing stunt by McAfee, but we thought it was worth looking into.

For the experiment McAfee has outfitted homemakers, government workers, students, and retired professionals with new laptop computers and a new email accounts. The catch, the laptop will not have any spam protection software installed.

Next the soon-to-be-spammed will be encouraged to click on pop-ups, order products from spam e-mails, and generally do the exact opposite of what common sense tells us to do online. Those involved will be blogging daily about their experiences and you can follow along as they share their spamtastic experiences here.

No word on whether or not participants are going to be handing over bank account and credit card information to phishing sites and exiled African princes. My guess is no.

McAfee says it hopes the experiment will reveal spam as a criminal act rather than the mere nuisance it is typically regarded as. "Spam isn't just a nuisance. It's a tool used by cyber criminals to steal personal and business data," said Christopher Bolin, chief technology officer for McAfee.

Hmm. I'm going to give McAfee, perhaps, more credit than it deserves. Let's get real and call this stunt out for what it is ? a marketing stunt. It doesn't take a genius to guess what's going to happen next to these guys and my guess is Bolin knows this as well.

Would anyone be surprise if someone took a walk in Time Square blindfolded with $100 bills pasted to his clothes and people started snatching the bills?

Well, for those curious as to what does happen if you try to order a bottle of male enhancement pills (I hope taking the pills isn't part of the experiment) or enter to win a chance at a free 50-inch plasma TV now you can just read the S.P.A.M. Experiment blogs without risking a thing.

The one big downside of this experiment is it's going to directly benefit spammers, hackers, and scammers. After all nothing motivates a spammer to spit out 10 million more junk e-mail messages than people taking their spam bait and giving them money. And that's also 50 more spam-spewing zombie laptops the Internet is going to have to contend with.

My bet: at least half of the laptops being used will crash due to malware and viruses before the 30 days are up.

Marketing stunt, yes; but I'm still going to follow along and see what happens.

Comments

I couldnt agree more with the author of this article. I have had nothing but $#*! expierences with airlines this year. I have flown nearly 75kmiles and can only remember 1 airline that got me to my destination on time as promised. Not Southwest, with thier faultly plane, not Continental and there canceled flights, not United, not Delta who wouldnt spring for my hotel when they made me miss my connecting flight on a 17hr return from South Africa, but a new small airline by the name of Jet Xpress! I tip my cap to whoever is running that show, one of a kind!

Whatever happened to customer service?!?!?!?!?

jonhazeleaf

March 31, 2008

8:04 PM PT