I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in a specific type of spam, over several accounts, over the past couple of days. Here is the format:

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: It’s Miranda 🙂
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 22:35:26 +0180
From: Miranda Arias
To:

Our Hottest pick this year! Brand new issue Cana Petroleum!

VERY tightly held, in a booming business sector, with a huge publicity campaign starting up, Cana Petroleum (CNPM) is set to bring all our readers huge gains. We advise you to get in on this one and ride it to the top!

Symbol: CNPM
Current Price: $2.95
Projected Price: $11.40

Check the stats! Check the level 2! Imagine what this one will do when the full force of the PR campaign hits it, in conjunction with smashing news!

Major oil discovery? We are not permitted to say at this point. All we can say is that this one is going to see amazing appreciation in a very short
period of time! This is your opportunity. Win big with CNPM!

Not only do I not care much about the stock market, I certainly wouldn’t take random stock tips via email. It really upsets me that tactics like this work on people. I say these tactics work because if there wasn’t a market for this type of direct advertising then people wouldn’t use it.

I found this interesting calculator which puts a dollar value on the lost productivity incurred per user.

I also found this link to “Spam Economics“