Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Another Spam Speculation
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Already businesses use incentives to get customers to refer friends as potential customers. A dry-cleaner might give you a free pound of wash-and-fold, a web site might give you a free month if you refer a friend who becomes a subscriber. (CrushLink is basically a referral pyramid scheme, right? I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary.)
And you have already seen spam that purports to be from a long-lost friend, who manages to mention her husband, new job, kid status, and oh, this new ink cartridge outlet you might like!
Speculation: spammers will go from fake referrals to real ones. Like spies paying anonymous passers-by to deliver the MacGuffin to the secret drop*, spammers could micropay humans to falsely refer friends, or to use their legitimate, real-human email accounts to spam.
Also, I wonder about the spam arms race. Could there be a neutral mastermind plotting to drive the state of email somewhere it has never been? A triple agent, working only for himself...
* Currently reading: Declare by Tim Powers. Gift from Nathaniel and Shweta. John le Carré meets Philip Pullman.
