Member-only story
Who do you think I am?
In which the writer attempts to decode assumptions of spammers
My business email account has somehow found its way into the hands of some very industrious scammers. Or rather, into the system of some criminals with a very efficient computer system that spurts out an endless supply of irrelevant commercial offers.
Every day, I receive at least a dozen emails from odd, unfamiliar addresses. My email provider redirects the majority to the trash folder, but every once in a while one sneaks past into my inbox.
The subject lines of these messages are odd enough that I decided to check out the trash folder to see what I was missing. The result got me thinking: who the heck to these people/bots think they’re writing to?
I kept track of the subject lines for these messages for just a week, out of curiosity (I have way too much time on my hands).
The results are amusing, and perhaps a little sad.
Because my email address ends in .ca, they have brilliantly deduced that I am a person in Canada. But apart from that, they are making many assumptions about the recipients that are … off.
A minority of these messages promise to improve my life and household experience with new products, including offering:
