Online Casino Gambling: Why you get so much spam.

Would you believe that I had 286 e-mails this morning?!? 279 of them were spam, including 24 phishing attempts. About a third of the spam - 86 - were for pornographic websites, and more than half of those - 47 - had curse words in the subject line. Ever wonder why you get so much spam? It's because it costs the sender nothing to send it, and for every person who clicks, this is how much money they get:

1       online casino  $5.54
2       online casino Gambling  $5.36
3       online gambling  $5.03
4       party poker  $4.80
5       carisoprodol  $4.69
6       poker online  $4.68
7       online poker  $4.63
8       golden palace casino  $4.60
9       gambling  $4.53
10      partypoker.com  $4.50

11      casino on line  $4.27
12      royal vegas casino  $4.20
13      poker  $4.19
14      phentermine online  $4.15
15      refinance home loan  $4.12
16      on line casino  $4.08
17      POKER GAME  $4.06
18      partypoker  $4.00
19      online video poker  $3.77
20      internet casino  $3.74

21      wagering  $3.70
22      tramadol  $3.60
23      refinance mortgage  $3.53
24      poker tournament  $3.51
25      ultimate bet  $3.51
26      Online Gambling Casino  $3.42
27      paradise poker  $3.41
28      empire poker  $3.36
29      gambling on line  $3.36
30      home equity  $3.33

31      refinance home  $3.32
32      best online casino  $3.29
33      refinance mortgage loan  $3.27
34      internet casino gambling  $3.26
35      internet poker  $3.26
36      live poker game  $3.26
37      omaha poker  $3.26
38      omaha poker strategy  $3.26
39      online casino casino gambling poker  $3.26
40      online hold em  $3.26

41      online poker for fun  $3.26
42      online poker player  $3.26
43      online poker tournament  $3.26
44      onlinepoker  $3.26
45      pacific poker.com  $3.26
46      planetpoker  $3.26
47      play free online poker  $3.26
48      play keno poker  $3.26
49      play poker for free online  $3.26
50      play poker game  $3.26

Hard to believe? Here's some FAQ's on the subject:

How can they send all that spam for free? Who's paying for the bandwidth?

The vast majority of spam (over 97%) is sent from compromised Windows computers. These are computers that have downloaded a small program that calls home every so often, gets a new e-mail address list and some new spam messages, and sends them out.

Why do people allow their computers to send spam?

The owners of compromised computers usually do not know that their computer is sending spam. It is estimated that over two-thirds of computers running Windows operating systems have some form of malware running on them. Much of that malware is sending spam.

Is that illegal?

In the United States, Europe, and most of the civilized world it is illegal to write and distribute malware. However, it is very difficult to catch the offenders. And the financial rewards are enormous.

Do people really click on spam?

There are no accurate figures available, but estimates are that between 0.05% and 0.2% of spam email gets clicked on. That means that if a spammer sends 100 million spams in a month (a conservative figure), he will get between 50,000 to 200,000 clicks. At $4 per click that's $200,000 to $800,000 per month. How much do you earn in a month? That's with a very, very slim chance of being caught, and an even slimmer chance of being prosecuted. And nobody gets hurt, right?

Nobody gets hurt, right?

Google the subject to see how much money anti-spam efforts cost. The figures rise incredibly fast, and any figure that I put here will be out of date by the time you read this.

Who's responsible?

Who wrote the operating system that allows software to install itself without the user's knowledge and to run silently in the background?

Why doesn't Microsoft stop allowing software to install itself and to run silently in the background?

Because at Microsoft that behaviour is considered a feature, not a bug. It makes software installation very easy for the end user. Have you ever tried to install software on Linux, for example? You have to enter a password to install software on Linux! Who would want that?

That's really Microsoft's viewpoint?

In Windows XP users can set up their machines to require passwords for software installation, by using an administrator's account. But that behaviour is not the default setting. Also, much Windows software will not run properly if installed by an administrator.