The Conservative Cat

I'll give these people credit for one thing: the ad doesn't contain any of the nonsense phrasing that characterizes most spam. Still, there is at least one red flag: the asterisk after Large or Small doesn't correspond to a footnote anywhere on the page. In addition, they promise that they have a double opt-in list tailored to our unique products and services. I can see that being the case for me, but the mail was also sent to Bruce's personal account, and he doesn't HAVE any products or services.

The main paragraph in the ad mentions opting in. You opt in every time you register a product on the web and check the little box stating that you'll accept EMAIL from third parties. The registration form usually has a whole bunch of checkboxes corresponding to your hobbies and interests. If you checked the boxes for "pets" and "politics", you just done a double opt-in for Conservative Cat.

When they say Your Ad MUST be seen, they're telling you that the ad will be sent as an image hosted somewhere on their server. Each time the image is retrieved, the server notices and increments a counter. This tells them how many times the ad is seen. Some spammers go even further: they image URL will be coded with information that tells them your EMAIL address. That causes your address to be added to a list of valid recipients that they can sell to other spammers. To prevent it from happening, many EMAIL clients offer you the option of turning off image display in your incoming mail.

Finally, it's worth noting that if I were to sign up for this service, the spammers would collect my money even though chances are high I would generate a lot more ill will than traffic. That's why spam won't go away any time soon: the spammers make money even though most of us are too smart to pay attention to spam. The suckers in this case aren't the consumers, they're the advertisers themselves.

I almost feel sorry for them.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat