A Question About Spam

I don’t know about you, but I sure get a lot of spam. One of the reasons is certainly my ‘catch-all’ email address. If you send an email to, let’s say, weirdguy@geofffox.com, I get it (and after putting that bogus address here, I surely will get email at that address).

Much of the spam I get isn’t in English! I get a smattering in Chinese and a boatload in Russian.

How do I know it’s Russian? Just a guess, but those Cyrillic characters are a pretty good tipoff. It’s a product of my link being on Alex Moskalyuk’s website which is in English and Russian.

Here’s a sample email. It’s from a company that organizes tours out of Russia.

Туроператор организует:

* Конференции в Египте, Турции и Италии (мы разработаем индивидуальную программу работы и отдыха, деловые обеды и ужины для каждой группы так, что Ваши конкуренты Вам позавидуют)

* Корпоративный отдых в Египте, Турции и Италии (развлечения, праздничные обеды и ужины Вашим сотрудникам гарантированны)

* VIP -отдых частных лиц

Телефоны в Москве: (495) 585-4968; (495) 241-9489

плрнвьойи псдчйоасоен еебвши

If you’re like me (and you really should hope and pray you’re not), you probably think spam is the same worldwide. Based on the Russian spam, that’s just not so.

I can’t read it, but I can see from the structure, they’re not selling Cialis, Viagra and penis enlargement products. None of the structure used here in the states to fool spam blockers are evident. These seem to be legitimate businesses… or shady businesses marketed as legit.

I wonder what it is culturally that makes our spam so sleazy and their spam so mainstream? Someone reading this must have an idea.