Filed under: Internet, Security, E-mail
Reformed spammer says he made up to $15,000 per week
Only a tiny fraction of internet users respond to spam email messages promising miracle drugs, hot dates, or the ability to enlarge various anatomical parts. But spam is still a profitable industry. One former spammer who goes by the name of Spammer-X says he made $480,000 during his last year as a spam artist.He worked hard for his money, spending ten hours a day, seven days a week devising new ways to send messages that would get past spam filters.
Of course, no spammer exists in a vacuum. He made his money for referring customers to actual businesses selling actual products (of dubious merit). Not that we'd recommend giving the guy more money, but he's written a book about his experiences, which he says has become popular with law enforcement types.
Why did he get out of the business? Telling people what he did for a living was getting uncomfortable, as was the amount of cash he had lying around the apartment in stacks of $20 bills. He was paid primarily in electronic funds through services like PayPal and e-gold, from which he withdrew the money as cash.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
