Recreational Whinge:  Today’s recreational whinge is one I’m quite confident most of you will agree with.  Those dirty, rotten, unethical, JERKS who send out their insidious little spam-bots to wreak havoc on email systems, websites, etc.  (Although I’m not writing the swearing language I’m using verbally at the moment…just imagine the words I’m really thinking/feeling here!)

I find it a constant challenge to keep on top of whatever latest technology tools, tips and tricks are around to prevent or minimise the spammers from getting to me and my systems.  But of course, I just can’t keep up.  That’s not be giving in and thinking negatively, it’s just a reality statement.

There are people out there absolutely dedicated to building technology to take advantage of other people and it pisses me off.

And I’m not entirely sure I understand the point. 

For example, all of the spam regarding medications.  Do people really buy this fake crap off the internet?  They must do or the spammers wouldn’t be still hounding us with them.

I do recall on a news report which talked about the millions of dollars made on this scam.

What’s more sad is the BILLIONS of dollars spent on trying to beat them, on the anti-virus software, on the labour hours to delete the messages.

There was something in the paper a few weeks ago that talked about the trillions of these messages sent every year and the amount of greenhouse gasses that are produced by sending them and the time we spend on our computers trying to delete them…and other related functions about this!

I sometimes wonder if the drug companies or the anti-virus software makers are involved, or other organisations.  I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I do have to question sometimes who else is benefiting from all this crap.

Generally, it pisses me off because my career is to help people and the time I have to dedicate to tagging messages on my website as spam and deleting them, deleting the spam in my email, etc…all could be dedicated to helping others.

Today it is specifically pissing me off as I’m preparing to leave on a very well-deserved holiday to Bali and I’m up early clearing out some work…and there is heaps of this spam crap to deal with!  And I know on my holiday I’ll have to log in at least once a day and clear spam messages on this very website!

The Positive Spin:  There isn’t one.

To all those spammers out there…have a good think about what you’re doing and whether it is morally and ethically responsible or not.  You may have a personal story involving economic needs, family obligations etc which you feel require you to do what you’re doing.  Think again…there has got to be a better way for you, because what you’re doing is hurting others, and I dare say you, when I am confident that’s not your original motivation.