Another .NET spammer

There used to be a time when spamming was limited to mass sales articles. Viagra and things like that have an immense marketing potential, and at least I could convince myself to believe that the spam-based sales originated from less advanced home users who didn't realize the global impact of the economy they were feeding. My beliefs have suffered serious blows. Although majority of the spam is still aimed at mass markets, there's been more targeted stuff too.

Today an ad from a French software company called Novalys managed to squiggle through my double spam filters. It says "Dear .NET user" at the beginning, and is sent to my email address used exclusively for newsgroup postings. The signature even says "Microsoft partner", and the footer assures "You're receiving this email because we thought you might be interested in VG news"… Well thanks, but you're obviously mistaken. While something called Visual Guard certainly sounds interesting, I don't need it.

Well, what can I say? Avoiding dealing with organizations that rely on destructive marketing measures is something I can do. I wouldn't place my spam ethics before a customer's benefit, but in a 50-50 situation I'd definitely tip the scales against somebody who blatantly ignores the Internet rules of conduct (and some legislation, too). I hope many of you will do the same as well. Software developers need not support this sort of dark economy. Truly excellent products have many great – and free – advertisement channels already.

September 27, 2006 В· Jouni Heikniemi В· Comments Closed
Posted in: General