them spammers ain't stupid

At least not as stupid as we might suspect at times, anyway. Have you ever paid attention to the junk mail you get? Enough to notice the subjects, I mean. If so, have you ever noticed how closely the offers are matched to the content of sites you've visited recently? I've sure seen that. Funny how that works...until I realize there must be spyware on my computer that lets those evil spammers track the sites I visit and tailor their spam to match my assumed interests. That isn't so cool, and I should probably care enough to purge that trash from my hard drive, but I don't. (Hey, maybe that's why I keep catching viruses every few months that force me to reboot my machine! Oh well, I guess if I cared more then that wouldn't keep happening.)

Anyway, case in point: I've been looking into Vegas info over the past few nights, trying to find the best hotel deals and hidden bargains and such, in preparation for an upcoming vacation this fall. Well, surprise! Today I received seven messages in my junk mail folder, six about how I can gamble my way to riches ("Live like a Hi-Roller!" "Better odds than Vegas!" etc.) and one touting the benefits of a vacation to Italy. Although the latter hit on a huge interest of mine, I'm not dumb enough to open spam messages and so it didn't get a bite. And unfortunately for those tracking my internet activity, they have guessed wrong that I'm a crazed gambling addict desperately searching for someplace to gamble away the rest of his pennies. Sorry folks, better luck with the next sucker...

And just think, somebody out there is getting paid okay money for sending this trash to thousands of people like me, 99.9% of whom will hit the delete key without ever giving it a second look. Ain't the internet great?