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Here’s What’s Funny About Spam In Your Inbox.

Laugh EmailYes, spam is a nuisance. Spam may be here forever, or as long as there are idiots sending and receiving email.

Is spam funny? Yes and no. No, no one needs spam. Yes, some spam is becoming hilarious.

I woke up this morning to the usual 50 or so messages in my inbox and spam folder. 10 good messages were in the inbox waiting for a read. I read.

40 spam messages were waiting in my spam folder, and I almost deleted them. It’s my morning ritual. Coffee to start the day on the computer. Delete spam.

I use Spam Sieve for email filtering so the standard, daily two-step is my dance for morning email. Read the good stuff, delete the bad stuff.

For whatever reason, today I did something different. Maybe I didn’t sleep so well. Maybe the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. Whatever it was, it let me scan the spam messages for a few seconds longer. What did I find?

Humor. Laughs. Giggles. I was in The Pursuit of Sillyness mode and found the ridiculous in my spam folder.

As of right now there are two !!! NOTIFICATION OF WINNING.!!! messages just waiting for my response. Whoever sent it will continue to wait, but I’m finding humor in their vain attempts to entice the gullible.

This message claims to have been sent from someone named Kate in the UK, informing me that my email address has won $1-million.

There’s a name, a phone number, and another email address for contacting them.

Of course, it’s an AOL email address. Kate says she works for Staatsloterij International B.V in the Netherlands.

Someone who thinks they can entice me with a mere $1-million via email is just itching to spread this contagious brand of ill-advised humor.

I have another spam message entitled, ”Dude, get all u need, here...” That’s a grabber headline if I’ve ever read one. What are they selling? Viagara, ######, Valium, and other friends. The discounts look pretty good.

As I scan through the other two dozen messages in the spam folder, I’m chuckling aloud. There’s five or six messages just like the Viagara message but with different headlines, otherwise the same.

There’s a very funny message from Bernice Hatfield hawking stock in Physicians Adult Daycare, now trading at $1.65 but sure to top $4.00 soon. How kind of Bernice to include me in her email address list.

Sharleen Staley’s subject says, ”FW: Did you hit me up on MSN today?” This one is obviously for Jack, not me. Except Sharleen’s message is about the discounts she has on High End Rolex Watches. Is there a low end Rolex?

You have to admit that creativity abounds with those trying to scam you with spam. There are trends, to be sure, but the ingenuity employed to get stupid people to click spam is remarkable.

Of course, some stupid people write spam. For example, Christopher Adamson’s subject is, ”Roam Light Wise Herds Left My.” Doesn’t that just make you want to click and read?

Mora sent me a message telling me that ”Fog Has Developed Along River Valleys And Near Bodies Of Water This Morning.” It’s funny how More forgot to include information about where the fog would be, but managed a graphic highlighting Wild Bush Energy’s stock price (hint: it’s going up!).

All seriousness aside, I think the spammer’s society has developed into a new form of humor. These things are actually funny, if not in a sad way.

Who can resist a subject line such as ”This Is How I Got Thin” and a picture of Oprah on the cover of “O”. She actually looks svelt, so the Free Bottle of Hoodia must be a worthy addition to any well stocked pantry.

Spam is a plague. A plague that will probably increase for years. Spam Sieve does a decent job segregating my valuable email messages from the obviously ridiculously funny messages.

What about you? Are you hit with the hilarity in spam messages? Do you have a favorite? What do you do to corral spam, isolate it from legitimate messages? As usually, share your perspective and experience with other Mac360 readers in the Comments section below.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.

   • Article by Carol Mary Miller • Published on Wednesday, January 3, 2007
   • Category: Opinion • 11 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now
  Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for this article.
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