Former spammer gave details of his business
He started a spam business at the age of 17, as soon as he finished school. For five years, he built a whole spamming empire, and at the peak of his power, his income reached $ 10-15 thousand per week. Money had to be stored in cardboard boxes in bills for twenty dollars.
The former spammer, who fully secured his future and retired at 22, chose to introduce himself as Ed. In the old days, Ed was known as SpammerX. Keeping anonymity, Ed still ventured to speak at the IronPort Systems security conference, which was held recently in London, where he revealed interesting details of his unusual profession.
Ed's career was built on human greed and intemperance. People with these weaknesses were "clients" of mailing lists. They were the ones who bought drugs from advertising and paid for miraculous recipes for quick enrichment.
“Yes, I know I'll go to hell,” says Ed. “But actually I'm a good guy, believe me.” However, Ed was not always like that. A few years ago, he sent targeted pharmaceutical spam to a database of people who use antidepressants and sedatives (sedatives) drugs - there are about nine million such poor people in America alone. That is, he specifically calculated the weakest clients, potential victims. On the basis of , which are treated for gambling addiction, Ed sent out casino advertisements.
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In general, as the former spammer now admits, he "personified what people hate the most on the Internet."
He spent ten hours a day, seven days a week, studying anti-spam filters. "The better I understood spam, the more money I earned," says Ed.
The business diagram as a whole looked like this. First, Ed found an online store that sold a particular product. Then he acquired a list of postal addresses - a hot commodity on the black market. Then he registered the domain name, put the site to which the reference was made in spam letters, and from here the affiliate program was redirected. If one of the clients made a purchase, then the reward of the partner reached 50%. Although the effectiveness of mailings was low (less than 1%), it sometimes even jumped up to 30%. This was once, when advertising a specific product for adults - photographs of dressed women bursting balloons.
For spamming, Ed rented botnets, paid to hacker owners for the duration of the lease.
Over the last year of his activity, Ed earned $ 480 thousand, but the work completely exhausted him. Ed admits that he practically had no personal life. The fact is that the work of the spammer was considered humiliating and dirty. Ed could not even tell the girl what he was doing. About his sad fate, he even wrote a book , again, anonymously.
A similar story:
P2P technology bankrupts disc pirates
The former spammer, who fully secured his future and retired at 22, chose to introduce himself as Ed. In the old days, Ed was known as SpammerX. Keeping anonymity, Ed still ventured to speak at the IronPort Systems security conference, which was held recently in London, where he revealed interesting details of his unusual profession.
Ed's career was built on human greed and intemperance. People with these weaknesses were "clients" of mailing lists. They were the ones who bought drugs from advertising and paid for miraculous recipes for quick enrichment.
“Yes, I know I'll go to hell,” says Ed. “But actually I'm a good guy, believe me.” However, Ed was not always like that. A few years ago, he sent targeted pharmaceutical spam to a database of people who use antidepressants and sedatives (sedatives) drugs - there are about nine million such poor people in America alone. That is, he specifically calculated the weakest clients, potential victims. On the basis of , which are treated for gambling addiction, Ed sent out casino advertisements.
')
In general, as the former spammer now admits, he "personified what people hate the most on the Internet."
He spent ten hours a day, seven days a week, studying anti-spam filters. "The better I understood spam, the more money I earned," says Ed.
The business diagram as a whole looked like this. First, Ed found an online store that sold a particular product. Then he acquired a list of postal addresses - a hot commodity on the black market. Then he registered the domain name, put the site to which the reference was made in spam letters, and from here the affiliate program was redirected. If one of the clients made a purchase, then the reward of the partner reached 50%. Although the effectiveness of mailings was low (less than 1%), it sometimes even jumped up to 30%. This was once, when advertising a specific product for adults - photographs of dressed women bursting balloons.
For spamming, Ed rented botnets, paid to hacker owners for the duration of the lease.
Over the last year of his activity, Ed earned $ 480 thousand, but the work completely exhausted him. Ed admits that he practically had no personal life. The fact is that the work of the spammer was considered humiliating and dirty. Ed could not even tell the girl what he was doing. About his sad fate, he even wrote a book , again, anonymously.
A similar story:
P2P technology bankrupts disc pirates
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/31181/
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