Lets say you were given the powers of “Q” with the following limitation, you could only use your power once, and then it would dissapear, and you could eliminate permamently one group…
the choices are telemarketers or spammers, who would you obliterate?
for me, the answer is simple, spammers, since my phone number is on the do-not-call list, i haven’t had any telemarketing calls in at least 6 months, i screen all my calls anyway
i don’t get any spam in my .Mac account, but my work account gets swamped with 200+ every day, my filters usually get about 80-90% of them, but usually around 30 make it past the filters and into my inbox
and since we’re a Mac based company, we are completely immune to MyDoom and other worms
given a “one-shot” power of “Q”, i’d obliterate all the spammers without a moment’s hesitation
The OP restricted the power down to two choices: spammers or telemarketers.
I would also go with spammers. I get a ton of it. My Earthlink account(s) filter a lot of it out (but occasionally bounce worthwhile emails, so I have to keep on my toes) but ironically, my .Mac account is flooded with spam. I am sure that it is because I was foolish enough to post the address on one of my higher-traffic web sites. (I always find it ironic that a spammer sends someone with a .Mac account ads for Windows programs. ;))
I also am on the Do-Not-Call list and haven’t gotten any telemarketer calls in about a year. So yeah, get rid of the spammers.
Do pop-up ads and spyware go under spammers? If not, then I’m going to get rid of them. Spam I only have to deal with when I check my mail, but pop-up ads and spyware are constantly on the prowl. Has anyone ever bought something based on what he or she saw in a pop-up ad or in spyware? They must stay in business somehow…maybe I should get rid of the idiots keeping them in business.
Spammers, definitely - I seldom get telemarketing calls at home, as I am ex-directory, but at least with most telemarketers, you have the small satisfaction that someone has heard you say no - with spam, there simply isn’t any way to reply or retaliate.
Spammers, hands down. They are the lowest form of human existence possible, not that telemarketers rank much higher than pond scum themselves. At least with telemarketers you can deal with them right then and there and either have fun with them and waste their time or be obnoxious, or be rude and tell them to dive head-first into a vat of swirling lemon juice and razor blades.
Spammers use every possible unscrupulous tactic there is to avoid getting caught and shut down, from forging and spoofing addresses, to hijacking email relays, munging their messages and subject lines to evade spam filters, using “web bugs” to detect when a spam is opened, using remove requests to comfirm the validity of email addresses. Of course telemarketers aern’t any less guilty of using tactics to get around methods used to avoid them, but their options are more limited.
In spite of how clear it is that absolutely nobody wants their shit, they still find ways to deliver it. The things spammers try to pitch are ludicrous, too (e.g. penis enlargement, university diplomas, etc.) I’ve never known telemarketers to do this, though their offers for mortgage rates and credit cards aren’t much better.
Besides, as others have noted, the do-not-call list has made telemarketers virtually non-existent in my view. Spammers, on the other hand, are much more difficult to control, so if I had to kill them off once and for all and only had one chance to use such power, I’d gladly do it.
actually, if you want to get technical, the spammers would simply vanish, maybe you could will them into a different line of business, preferably something where they have no access to computers, they wouldn’t be killed (maybe i should have used a different term than “obliterate”, the end result is the same, thru use of “Q” powers, spammers no longer send spam
of course, the way i’d do it is have all the spammers computers turn into the substance of the same name, that’s almost, but not quite, entirely unlike meat, and any computer they touch, with the intent of sending spam, turns into the Hormel meatlike product
