By: Jim Taylor

Exploiting our weakness


I opened up my e-mail program one Saturday morning recently. As usual, the overnight spammers had filled my mailboxes with messages that I normally delete en masse.

        This time, out of morbid curiosity, I decided to analyze what I had received.

        There were 72 unsolicited messages.

        One of them was a plea for saving great whales. Two others promoted a right-wing religious agenda.

And the rest?

        The “subject line” of eight consisted of incomprehensible strings of nonsense characters.

        Nine wanted to sell me a watch – replica Rolexes, mostly.

        Six offered me cheap software, probably pirated in China.

        Five dealt with money, either hot stocks or on-line gambling casinos.

        Thirteen marketed pharmaceutical products – below market price, without a prescription, suitable for weight loss, etc.

        By far the biggest group – 28 of the total 72 messages—dealt with sex. Four offered Viagra or Cialis or some other erection-enhancing pill. Three assured me that something called a “Personal Puss” was better than the real thing. Twenty told me that I needed a bigger penis, or more sperm to ejaculate. And one assured me that bigger breasts would enhance my sex life.

        And that’s just one morning’s sample.

        As we head into the Christmas season, it feels particularly offensive.



Me, me, me

 It’s a typical mix of messages, though. Some days I get more financial stuff – occasionally even an impassioned plea from Nigeria, written entirely in capital letters, inviting me to help free some dictator’s ill-gotten gains from a Swiss bank account – and some days more sex or software.

        But the common factor is always self-centeredness. Anyone else exists only to be impressed by my wealth, my possessions, or my sexual prowess.

        I worked in the advertising industry for six years. We commonly claimed that advertising does not shape public opinion – it merely reflects people’s values back to them.

        If so, I’m depressed.

        I’m depressed that there are so many vultures out there willing to exploit our weaknesses. I’m equally depressed that there must be people who respond to these appeals.

        Spam “will only end when people stop buying diet pills, herbal highs, and sexual performance enhancers,” said Dave Rand, of Internet security firm Trend Micro.



Attitude change needed

    It’s easy to blame computers for the proliferation of spam. But as Rand said, "This is a human problem, not a computer problem."

        The products promoted by spam are no different from the rare-animal spleens and gizzards favored as aphrodisiacs in Asia, or the snake oil peddled in the American west.

        Perhaps it’s always been this way…

        Experts say that the way to cure spam is not to respond at all. Delete, delete, delete…

        But that will work only if everyone does it – and I do mean everyone.

Because spammers send out millions of e-mails. Even if only a tiny percentage respond, they still make a profit. Which encourages them to send more spam.

        Somehow, the whole world needs to say, and to believe: “I am a child of God. I am more than my money, my possessions, or my hormones.”

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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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