New spammer record for To: field stuffing

[DogAndPony]

Mail.app started hanging on me about half an hour ago... There was clearly a new message in the In Box that was causing the problem.

I wanted to rebuild the mailbox, but the app would hang before I had a chance to.

So I ended up hand-editing the mbox file... and there, at the end of the file, was a piece of phishing spam ("You're almost finished confirming your PayPal account!") with -- I kid you not -- 23,845 email addresses stuffed into the To: field.

I dunno about you, but that's a new high (or new low, depending on your POV) for a spam that's been spewed at me.

All the forced-quits and restarts and stuff ended up trashing all of my filters.

Once more, the bastages cost me tons of time and work.

:ythulk:

[Randall]

In the To field? Not even CC'd? :ytrubeye:

Amateurs.

Randall

[Jeff]

AmateursMade him look at the spam :ytshark:

[Randall]

Not really -- it was the way Mail.app choked on the @#$% thing that made him look...

Unless they were counting on people like Bob to go in and fix the borked mbox files. But that would be ascribing way too much intelligence to the scum. :rasberry:

Randall

[DogAndPony]

Or maybe they're ascribing to the new "Annoy to Sell" school of thought... So many TV ads now use amazingly annoying music, or are run a thousand times per hour... or like the lates "Head-On" commercials, just repeat a single line three times in a 10-second spot.

Apparently, some young advertising agencies believe that the more you p**s off your target audience, the more likely they are to buy your product.

:dunno:

[Andilinks]

the more you p**s off your target audience, the more likely they are to buy your product.Actually the goal is to make you remember the name. An emotional response is likely to do that even if the response is itself negative.

Ford has begun a series of ads with bizzare off-topic emotional messages. The "ex-boyfriend" who clears the road or the ex-husband given a weekend with the kids are examples of just how desperate advertisers are to get our attention with 30 second soap operas.

Also there is an increasing number of ads with telephones or alarm clocks ringing and one pet remedy that uses a tea pot sound... It's a jungle out there.

[Randall]

the more you p**s off your target audience, the more likely they are to buy your product. Actually the goal is to make you remember the name. An emotional response is likely to do that even if the response is itself negative. True, but that kind of advertising is the reason why I stopped listening to commercial radio. With no visuals, they had to resort to annoying people a long time ago. :eeww:

At least with TV ads, you can mute the sound and wait for it to be over. With radio, the sound is the only cue you've got. Once you turn it off, there's less incentive to turn it back on...

Randall

[Andilinks]

True, but that kind of advertising is the reason why I stopped listening to commercial radio.Maybe after 80 years the ad model is broken. Ads of any kind have become spam, maybe we are on the cusp of an era where people are willing to subscribe. That model is working for premium cable and satellite radio.

Things change, and those who desperately cling to broken models annoy us.

[DogAndPony]

Actually the goal is to make you remember the name.that's a given... Especially for someone like me who's been working in and around advertising for about 23 years. :yeah:

[DogAndPony]

Maybe after 80 years the ad model is broken.Definitely. Major oversaturation of eyeball and ear and brain time in the traditional channels has forced advertisers to start to oversaturate us in non-traditional channels. Like all the ads that are getting stuffed into video games, or placements in more and more TV shows and movies... Or tattooed on some woman's pregnant belly. :eeww:

[Adam]

maybe we are on the cusp of an era where people are willing to subscribe.

The main satellite and cable TV services here all require subscription, however they have more commercials on the subscription channels than the free-to-air channels :dunno:

I don't watch TV anyway, but when I do I just get annoyed. :blah:

[Andilinks]

The main satellite and cable TV services here all require subscription, however they have more commercials on the subscription channels than the free-to-air channels. But you are subscribing to the delivery there. Basic cable began with just a melange of local stations and later added things like A&E and MTV because these could generate revenue with commercials. I suspect it's similar in the UK but since you don't watch I guess I shouldn't ask. :)

The subscriptions I was referring to are the premium channels, HBO, Showtime etc. which don't run commercials though they do product placement which is the next generation of commercial. Commercials will get less blatant, more subtle. People do need commercial information, but just like they need water, drowning is unpleasant. The dissemination of fashion is interesting, how long will it be before people realize that award shows are almost entirely all sales pitch? It's the unscripted portions that get remembered and discussed over the water cooler.

I enjoy and approve of the disruption, it begins when people are annoyed. :) I think commercials worked in the '20's, 30's, ... 80's, 90's because people were entertained by them. I think the Internet (mostly) has changed that.