The Ridiculousness of Spam
Fortunately, we do not have a spam problem here at Persona Paper, but I remember at "the other place" when every other comment was about how a person's aunt or neighbor makes a bazillion dollars on the internet. I usually passed those by without doing the math, but as I was reporting a spammer once, I read the comment, which went thusly, minus the link:
"my co-worker's mom makes $64 an hour on the internet. She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay check was $14416 just working on the internet for a few hours."
Sounds good, right? Also sounds like absolute crap, of course, but I got interested in the mechanics of it. The spammer who composed this message just threw a few big numbers in to make it appealing, but didn't bother to do the math. I did. A monthly paycheck of $14,416, even at the princely rate of $64 an hour, would require over 225 hours of work. That's more than 50 a week, so even if this "opportunity" were remotely legitimate (IT'S NOT!). they are totally lying about working for "just a few hours", unless they think working seven and half hours every single day of the month, with no holidays or weekends off, is "just a few hours".
Why do they even bother? If there was an easy way to make this much money, folks, they would not need to ADVERTISE in the comments of a blogging site, yes? EVERYONE WOULD ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT. Same thing with "miracle weight loss pills". If it were as easy as taking a pill, there would be no fat people on the face of this earth. So please resist the urge to click, because I am so sure you know better.
Image Credit » http://pixabay.com/en/road-sign-attention-shield-stop-464658/ by geralt
Comments
wolfgirl569 wrote on March 21, 2015, 6:12 PM
I got a lot of those there also, but never did the math. Do have to say that if I could make that much an hour I would not mind doing that many hours.
valmnz wrote on March 21, 2015, 6:17 PM
Love the way you've done the math here. We all know they're crazy, but unfortunately some people do get sucked in.
AliCanary wrote on March 21, 2015, 6:30 PM
Yeah, maybe so. You could work for like five years and then just retire
AliCanary wrote on March 21, 2015, 6:31 PM
They are expecting to dazzle people who will not question the numbers or the statements. It's unfortunate that there are actually people who might believe this!
1FourWalls wrote on March 21, 2015, 7:03 PM
It's like the e-mails saying "I'm the King of Nervosa, and all you have to do is send me your name, date of birth, social security number, and bank account number plus $350 US for processing and I'll deposit $1 million US into your account tomorrow." PT Barnum was famously quoted as saying, "There's a sucker born every minute," which is the only reason I can think that they persist. If they get ONE taker they've accomplished their goal.
alexdg1 wrote on March 21, 2015, 7:56 PM
I wonder how the fine folks at Hormel feel about the negative association we have with the e- variety of spam.
Porcospino wrote on March 21, 2015, 8:01 PM
I remember those comments, but I just skipped them without reading the details. A lot of people want to make money on the internet, and some people believe those comments.
allen0187 wrote on March 21, 2015, 8:16 PM
i'm truly thankful that we do not have a spam problem here in the site. The screenign process has has helped a lot in this regard.
About reporting spam at the other site, I did that diligently for much of my tiem there and then when I realized I was fighting a losing battle, I stopped and paused to think if i wanted to continue with the dierction that I was heading.
bestwriter wrote on March 21, 2015, 9:45 PM
When I was active there I have time and again reported this spam but the owners preferred to ignore it.
Brillian wrote on March 22, 2015, 12:21 AM
Right, I wouldn't be here spamming accounts after accounts if the treasure I was telling everyone about is true. Lol!
scheng1 wrote on March 22, 2015, 2:49 AM
If it is true, IRAS will definitely be interested in collecting taxes.
FreyaYuki wrote on March 22, 2015, 10:17 AM
I'm glad we don't see these kinds of comments on Persona Paper but I've seen a lot of that spam on the other site. Never bothered to do the math as I just ignore these kinds of comments or click on the flag button. It's a wonder why people bother doing that though. Who bothers clicking on the links on those spammy comments? Plus, on other sites, the comments are actually moderated and don't appear on a blog right after they're posted so it's highly likely that no one but the moderator will even see these spammy comments and yet there are still those who post them anyway. Even on that other site, the authors can just delete the spam comments.
BarbRad wrote on March 23, 2015, 11:52 AM
Anyone who knew about a job that paid that well would not be slaving away putting spam comments on sites that pay pennies per day.
AliCanary wrote on March 23, 2015, 3:12 PM
Especially hilarious is that the person says "my coworker's mom" makes all this money, although apparently the coworker hasn't been impressed enough to quit HIS job to do it!
1WordChazer wrote on March 24, 2015, 3:54 PM
Yup. Some of these weightloss things are just ridiculous. Sometimes they work but usually the only sure fire way to lose weight is to put forth more energy than you are consuming in calories. And the only sure fire ways to make pots of money from scratch are to work hard and earn it or come up with an idea that no one else has thought of yet, then market it successfully.