What do we do about all those unwanted, and dubious, emails?

One of my old email accounts somehow ended up on a spam list, so all of a sudden, I started getting spammed. There wasn’t much at first, but then it started to grow exponentially.

The only reason I keep this account is in case an old client wants to get a hold of me. In any case, I decided to study the spam phenomenon to see if there was anything I could learn from it.

The first thing I learned is that my spam blockers are ineffective. I can put these things in my junk file, but they keep on coming. The spammers keep changing the addresses from which they’re sending, so each new barrage comes from a new address never heard from before.

Spammers must buy email lists, and the more addresses on the list, the more expensive they must be. As the old saying goes, “There’s no honor among thieves.” If you want to make more money, just duplicate the list over and over.

Let’s say you have a 1,000 addresses.

Copy and paste them into the same file 10 times, and now you have 10,000. So we instantly get multiple duplicates of the same ad. Even though they try to look like real offers, no legitimate company would ever try to drown prospective customers with a dozen copies of the same ad in one or two seconds.

Some days I get several hundred emails I don’t want, and other days I don’t get any. It seems these guys get tired or go on vacation or something, but it’s very erratic. I imagine there are some people dumb enough to respond to some of these, but it must be a tough way to make a living.

Everybody wants a free iPhone, but how many people are stupid enough to believe such an offer is legitimate? Why would Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, Home Depot or anybody else want to give me a $100 gift card?

Perhaps the greatest damage is to the companies being misrepresented. As an Apple customer, I get marketing emails from them all the time. Now I won’t even look at them. Yes, some are legitimate, but I can’t be bothered.

Admittedly, I’ve never responded to email solicitations of any kind. If I got an email from Apple announcing a new iPhone, I might read it, and if I had any interest, I’d visit the Apple store. I’ll bet I’m not the only one who reacts this way.

Email solicitations have always been suspicious to begin with, but when spammers pirate your logo, pictures of your product and/or service, your credibility is destroyed.

Unfortunately, there are people naive enough to click on that link. Even worse, there are people trying to make money this way. Yes, I know there are a lot of dishonest people in the world, but in addition to being dishonest, these spammers are just plain stupid. Thankfully, they’re not smart enough to clean up their act and look like the real deal.

I’m surprised the big tech companies don’t get together to do more to prevent spam. It certainly compromises and devalues the products they offer. Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Coach and other luxury item producers go to great lengths to discourage the bootlegging and distribution of unauthorized copies of their products. There was a large flea market in Derry shut down years ago by Coach over repeated sales of imitation Coach products.

Years ago, email was an exceptionally reliable and secure method of communication. Now, we can even get our messages encrypted, but it just might not be enough.

Ronald J. Bourque, a consultant and speaker from Salem, has had engagements throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He can be reached at 603-898-1871 or RonBourque3@gmail.com.