evolution of spam? no mortgages, lots of drugs

Factual Questions
1

Am I the only person who’s spam changes, like fads?
I used to get, among 25 spams a day, several offering mortgage deals. Now I get lots of pharmacy deals,(offering cheap drugs, not just the older-style spam offering Viagra only.) The mortgages have almost disappeared.
Has anyone else noticed this?

If this is a general trend, it implies that spammers are reacting to the market.Maybe they get more replies to pharmacy offers than mortgages. Which means that there must be even more suckers out there than I thought–people who actually respond to the spam filling their inbox.

But that implies that the spammers are making their money due to purchases actually made from pharmacy sites. I had thought the spammers made their money just by selling lists of active emails to people dreaming of get-rich-quick schemes. So I was hoping that after a few years, spam might reduce as the dreamers(at least, say, the mortgage-spammers) realize it doesnt work.
Was I being totally naive? Or is spam actually a realistic way to sell pharmaceuticals, more than mortgages?

2

I too have spam that runs in cycles. Around December every other email was for the “Digital Cable” filter. Then came the mortgages, then the “Viagra.” Now I am getting for OEM software without the original packaging (that’s how we can offer you the software at these spectacular prices!!! <–That’s how you can tell it’s real as they use lots of “!!”) :slight_smile:

Funny though the cycles run independetly of each other haven’t had a mortgage or digital cable filter for a while.

3

Yea, mine’s in waves. I’m in a Vicodin (or should I say V 1 C 0 D 1 N!!!) wave at the moment, though the Nigerians run pretty constant.

4

A large percentage of spam is generated by the same few people. Despite the many different addresses, web sites and front companies they may use.

The fads you see are therefore just a reflection of their current contracts.

Spam pays. But it only pays because the true cost is not born by the sender, but by the recipients.