Daniel Lovell has won more than two dozen awards for his columns, editorials and investigative journalism. He is actively addicted to the Internet, soda and New York Yankees baseball.
I don't know what I've done to deserve all the attention, but over the past few years I've received literally thousands of offers from all over the world in my e-mail. Every day, I get job offers, tips on losing weight, free gift cards -- and even secret offers from far-away lands, promising millions of dollars in exchange for my bank account information.
Why, just this morning, someone with the very credible name of Tom Bosley (Happy Days, anyone?) wrote to tell me how I can start my own bait shop online. And someone else (their name was omitted from the e-mail) told me they knew how I could save 70 cents per gallon on my gas. I've learned how to be a marketing superhero and boost my online visitors. A guy named John Reese invited me to watch his videos to find products I could sell on eBay. And, speaking of eBay, someone wrote just to let me in on an inside secret: People are making thousands of dollars using eBay. Wow.
That's really just the tip of the iceberg. In any given day, my inbox is filled with hundreds of these messages. I delete anywhere from 200 to 400 every day. And that's with the spam blocker installed on the server.
Sometimes I'm startled by the number of spam messages I get in a day, and I wonder why this form of marketing continues. I don't read the messages. I've never purchased anything because I saw it in an e-mail. The only reason I can imagine that this continues is that it works on someone.
I mean, really. If it didn't work at all, they wouldn't do it anymore, right?
So who are these people who read and respond to spam? Who actually clicks on the links to learn how to make thousands on eBay? Who truly believes they'll profit from a $2.3 million bank transfer from someone in Nigeria?
I guess I could get angry about it. I could get angry at spammers and I could get angry at those who make spamming worthwhile. But I've decided to pretend that spammers are my friends, who are just trying to help me out. And right now, it's just my choice to ignore them. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a popular rebel.
