Is spam a dilemma, phenomenon, or both?

[thathagat]

interesting stuff........
Is spam a dilemma, phenomenon, or both? | IT Security | TechRepublic.com

I do not know anyone that likes spam. Yet, nine out of every ten emails are spam-related. If it’s not cost-effective, wouldn’t spammers stop?
The fact that spam exists eludes me. First, how can you trust unsolicited email advertising questionable products (you know the kind)? Next, despite our disdain, spam must work. Otherwise, advertisers wouldn’t be using it. In trying to figure this out, I came across the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG).Last year, MAAWG published a report about email abuse. The paper is packed full of useful information. The 2010 Email Security Awareness and Usage Report is this year’s equivalent. It’s impressive, providing what I would consider an in-depth look at how users view spam. Check out what MAAWG is trying to accomplish with this survey:

 

[WindowsStar]

Let do a bit of math:

Say you send 10,000,00 spam emails and only 5% click on it, that’s 500,000 let’s say out of that only 1% buy. That’s 5000, if say the price is $30US that is $150,000US. As you can see this is extremely profitable. This is why SPAM works. I tell everyone if you want to stop SPAM tell everyone you know to NEVER EVER click on an SPAM AD.

Next the big Telco companies and ISPs do NOT want to stop SPAM they make too much money off SPAM that stopping it would nearly bankrupt them. Think about it. (Hypothetically I am a major SPAMer) and I setup stealth SPAM servers (big servers that can send out 10,000,000 SPAM fast and efficiently) I buy 2 DS3 or 2 OC3 lines from my local Telco for my servers to send out the SPAM. The Telco is making a lot of money off of me. They don’t want to stop me they want to help me do anything they can to keep the money coming. I have seen this over and over the Telco will not shut them down and do a lot to protect the SPAMer because that is their way of making money.

 

[thathagat]

Agreed...the basic motivation behind nearly every Internet borne threat today be it spam/botnets/ransomware/rootkits/keyloggers is $$$$...money.Its not so much as to cripple one's system for fun but to infect to extract monetary gain.Malware vectors too are up for sale
Zeus botnet malware is improving for hackers - Techworld.com

Older versions of Zeus are available for free, but the price for the current Zeus and its modules, out since the end of last year, is not cheap. In the online criminal underground, fraudsters often pay for crimeware through Western Union or Web Money, according to SecureWorks.

According to a report published by SecureWorks this week, the basic Zeus Builder kit runs $3,000 to $4,000, with another $1,500 for the "Backconnect" module to connect back to an infected machine to make financial transactions from it. This means banks that try to track money transfers will always trace it back to the computer of the account holder. To hack Windows 7 or Vista computers, criminals will have to ante up an extra $2,000 or be limited to Windows XP systems.

A "Firefox form grabber," costing another $2,000, lets a criminal grab data out of fields that are submitted using the Firefox Web browser, such as usernames and passwords for banks. A "Jabber (IM) chat notifier," costing another $500, will let the attacker get stolen data immediately in order to access the victim's account after the victim logs in using a token provided by the bank to randomly generate numbers. And the VNC module, which allows the attacker to get around any smartcard that's required for large-dollar transactions, is $10,000.

 

[Desslok]

Another thing to consider is the "get rich quick" schemes being sold. Imagine you live in poverty in some 3rd world country,and someone says to you, "For xx amount of money, I will seel you this program, you will be rich and be able to buy a house and all the food you want. I will give you a list of email addresses and instructions how to make a fortune." So the poor guy buys this scam, spends his life savings, sends millions of spam messages and never makes a penny off the scheme. But the guy selling the scheme makes a ton. Kind of like those guys on the infomercials selling the "Get rich in real estate" schemes, etc. They didn't make money selling houses, they got rich selling you the scheme that didn't work.