“Spammers are criminals, plain and simple”

Ridiculous article in BBC lamenting that 1/3 of email users have responded to spam and 10% have bought products from spam. The article portrays this as “bad e-mail behaviour” because, as every anti-spam scaremonger is quick to assert, responding to spam guarantees that the user will be redirected to porn sites, infested with spyware, have their personal information expropriated, get zits and cause inter-galactic cataclysm.

Therefore, the article cites one analyst as saying: “People must resist their basic instincts to buy from spam mails. Spammers are criminals, plain and simple. If no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn’t buy products sold in this way, then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs.” Most anti-spam zealots simply cannot imagine that some spam offers products and services that recipients find useful. Instead, these zealots are prepared to label recipients as idiots if they respond to spam, even if it’s relevant to their interests…which explains why the zealots would prefer to censor spam rather than letting people choose for themselves.