Ever wondered who creates the spam that you get in your e-mail inbox? It turns out that spammers are “very special” people and they might just be your nerdy neighbor next door.

SpamBlockers created the following profile which describes the typical spammer:

    Personal Characteristics

– Predominantly male
– 16 – 35 years old
– Single
– Living in or working from home
– Technically competent (these guys are not idiots)
– Tendency to be involved in other illegal activities (e.g. credit card fraud)
– Consider their activities to be harmless
– Can/will work with other spammers on large campaigns

    Methods Used

– Familiar with spoofing also known as “E-mail Phishing“.
– Uses open relays
– Never uses the same IP address twice
– Sets up a webpage/portal that looks exactly like that of a well known company.
– Sends out spam mail to this companies customers advising them to update their payment information or billing details.
– The customer responds to this by going to the website and entering their login or credit card details.
– The spammer then uses the acquired information to perform other illegal activities as the new identity.

    Favorite Spam Software

– News Blast
– MailBomb
– Prospect Mailer
– Spammers will often have software custom written for them if necessary.

    Amount of Spam

– A single spammer can, potentially, send 84,000,000 (84 million pieces of spam per day).

    Income Potential

– A “good” spammer can easily earn $100,000 per year. Spammers work on a piece rate so the more spam they send the higher their income potential.
– On average 1,000,000 pieces of junk mail sent out will result in 100 “sales” or leads. This in turn generally means big profits for the spammer.

Spammers are people, too—-just really sick people.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.

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