[PLUG-TALK] Watches

[David Fierbaugh]

<humor> Maybe you're on some sort of 'watch' list?? </humor>

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 9:01 PM, Michael M. Moore <michael at writemoore.net>wrote:

> Google does my spam filtering and I generally leave it in the spam
> folder (err... spam "tag", this being GMail), just giving the
> subject/author headers a once-over every day or two and then marking
> all as read.  There aren't many false positives, and their filters do
> a pretty good job of catching most of the spam I get.  With rare
> exceptions, the spam that most often escapes Google comes over the
> various Debian mailing lists I'm on.
>
> I have noticed, though, that the amount of spam is on the rise.  GMail
> auto deletes spam more than 30 days old, and for a while there,
> shortly after that take-down some months ago of that company in CA
> that apparently was generating tons of spam, I typically had fewer
> than 150 messages in my spam folder.  Now it's up to 270 and rising.
>
> What perplexes me, though, is the amount of "replica watches," "Tag
> Heuer," etc., etc., spam I'm getting.  Porn and sexual enhancement --
> to be expected.  Prescription drugs without a prescription-- par for
> the course.  Get rich quick schemes -- de rigueur.  But watches?  When
> did that become such a big deal?  I feel a bit Rip Van Winkleish, like
> I fell asleep for a long time and woke up to find the world has gone
> mad for Rolex knock-offs.  I know these things aren't new; anyone
> who's been out in public over the past 30 years has passed street
> vendors selling fake Cartier's and such.  But why the huge push over
> the Intertubes?  Is this really such a successful niche that it
> warrants the push?  Or am I somehow, unwittingly, included in a
> special group that is somehow being targeted?
>
> I guess what I'm wondering is whether everyone is getting as much
> watch spam as I am, or only some of us are.  And if it is everyone,
> good grief, what's the appeal?
>
> Michael M.
>
> --
> "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
> limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
> 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's
> will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
> --Thomas Jefferson
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