Who is viewing the spam?

So there are heaps of spam threads all virtually the same so you get the drift...

People seem to be clicking them open according to lurker numbers, every one of them.

Or do the spambots revisit for a look?

Just curious.

Yes and you're viewing it!

A question I asked before and never really got an answer, what is the benefit of spam? Surely the people who take the time and effort to set all of this up must be doing it for a reason which I assume has to be financial gain. If someone could just simply explain how this converts to money I'd love to know.

Something to do with raising the profile of the sites on google so that when an individual does a legit search the spam sites are more likely to be on the front page and therefore get more traffic.

I presume that it's not people viewing the threads.

And somehow that's worth money? no wonder all the .Com businesses crashed

Yeah I've never really understood it!

@EG OK - all the .com business crashed? You have no idea, do you?  Mass-spammers only need a very small response to their email to make money.  If a spammer drops a million messages advertising a $30 enlargement pill they only need a 0.5% response to make $150,000.

Intermanaut wrote (see)

@EG OK - all the .com business crashed? You have no idea, do you?  Mass-spammers only need a very small response to their email to make money.  If a spammer drops a million messages advertising a $30 enlargement pill they only need a 0.5% response to make $150,000.

I'm thick when it comes to this stuff, you mean 0.5% actually buying the product? Or can they make money from the Internet in other ways as well?

Buying.  Once they've got details of buyers, though, including credit card data...

Ah ok...

I must admit I struggle to get my head round the figures but the simple fact is we're dealing with huge numbers and, quite frankly, five minutes reading comments on youtube videos should be enough to tell you that there are an awful lot of very, very stupid people on the planet, many of whom would like to have larger willies.

PhilPub wrote (see)

I must admit I struggle to get my head round the figures but the simple fact is we're dealing with huge numbers and, quite frankly, five minutes reading comments on youtube videos should be enough to tell you that there are an awful lot of very, very stupid people on the planet, many of whom would like to have larger willies.

So there's a niche in the market for elephant dicks?

Thank you for pointing out that a sale can generate money (never thought of that) but most spam I see doesn't imply a sale, so how does this type of spam generate an income.

KittenKat if on your searches you come across Penis reduction, let me know, I might be interested.

EG OK wrote (see)

KittenKat if on your searches you come across Penis reduction, let me know, I might be interested.

You mean the Bobbitt pill.

(It's a tough one to swallow)

only if it's less than $30 of course

Almost all spam involves a sale at some point.  All of the spam here that I remove does.

Back to square one then, there isn't an explanation

EG OK wrote (see)

A question I asked before and never really got an answer, what is the benefit of spam? Surely the people who take the time and effort to set all of this up must be doing it for a reason which I assume has to be financial gain. If someone could just simply explain how this converts to money I'd love to know.

Spammers are selling something, be it fake drugs, access to porn channels, dodgy inheritance offers, access to sports events, and so on.  That's how it converts to money.

Idiots respond to the spam, buy something using credit cards, then they lose more money as their card data makes its way in to organised crime.