The BBC reports on a fascinating study by California researchers into how spammers generate profits.
How Spammers Cash In
One Comment
Recent Posts
The Two Weeks That Reshaped Canada’s Digital Policy 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 274: Mark Musselman on What Stakeholders Really Think About the Government’s Reversal of the CRTC Online Streaming Act Decision 
Improv Policy: The Government Doesn’t Know What To Do About Its Online Streaming Act Mess 
Soft Ban or Hard Verification Requirement?: Why Bill C-34’s Social Media Ban Exemption Gets the Incentives Wrong and Comes Too Late to Matter 
New Rights, New Powers, Long Delays: Bill C-36’s Seven-Step Process for Privacy Reform to Take Effect
Onlu part of the picture though
Ah yes! They may not make a lot as “one” person sending spam, but most spammers are in private alliances and more and more are becoming aligned with organized crime.
They take is a lot closer to what people “thought” the take can be, than this study shows.
While the researchers had to “become spammers” to do their research, they didn’t THINK like spammers.
You want to spam, but don’t know how? No problem, there’s step-by-step webkits available. You need a network. You can 1) make your own trojans or 2) lease an existing network. Botnet leasing is a big business. Just sit on some of the spammers IRC channels for a while 😉