Clever Spam Trends

I feel compelled to give spammers some props. They are so darn clever in their attempts to get us to open their messages and click. Reviewing just a few of them reveals some decent logic.

The Love Note Trend
Perhaps the Queen Mother of all spam trends, this one unleashed the legendary “I love you” virus on the Internet. All predicated on the fact that very few of us could resist someone telling us we are loved - even if we didn’t recognize the name and/or email address. How sad and needy we all are. How smart the spammers are to know this and prey upon it.

The E-greeting Trend
This is a recent trend and much like the Love Note messages, this one also preys upon our needy nature. Who isn’t thrilled to see that someone has sent us an e-postcard or other greeting, especially with tantalizing attribution like, “A worshipper has sent you an e-card” or “A loved one has sent…” The recipient feels special and instant anticipation of a pleasant surprise could lead to a click.

The Important Attachment Trend
Another current spam trend. A particularly smart component of this piece is that there is no body copy to give away its bogus nature. All you have to go on is the subject line, return address and the attached file name. In the past week or so I received one that had either a subject line or file attachment named “check.” Fascinatingly, I was in the midst of trying to track down late payment from a client and for ¾ of a second I actually thought, “Oh look. They emailed me an image of the check to prove that it's on the way!”

The “Thanks for Registering” Trend
This one is new. Just started a few days ago for me. The email appears to be a confirmation that you are now a registered member of some site. Again the psychological ploy is sort of brilliant – who doesn’t want to be included in exclusive membership. You think, “Oh how exciting. I don’t remember registering here, and maybe it’s an accident and now I’m IN!”


Wonder who comes up with these ideas. Probably someone not entirely unlike those in my field – marketing/PR/communications types. Don’t we do the same thing? Figure out how to manipulate readers into a desired response using only words and images? Hmmmm. Wonder how that work pays?