Nobody is sharing experiences, opinions about you
• Amorous Capitalism , • Amorous Web, Cyber Sex , • Richard Evans Lee
I can't remember how long ago it was that I got an email saying that someone wanted to date me, lusted for me or something along those lines. Now I was a very thoroughgoing Internet dater, it was easy to believe that some ancient profile on a forgotten personal ad site sparked someone's interest.
Couldn't help but want to which relationship site, which personal ad or profile. Foolish me I clicked on the link. I was advised that I'd have to register if I wanted to read what my admirer had written of me. At least I was cautious enough to use one of my disposable email addresses.
Registration completed I never could find anything to read. The site's wording wasn't clear but it seemed that I'd have to upgrade my free account to a paying one if I wanted to read the words that hypothetically were there.
The email had been sucker bait. One of the worst thing about the old Yahoo personal ads had been the numbers of replies were from people who claimed to "normally hang out" at some dating site that I'd have to join if I wanted to meet them (I was never stupid enough). The online romance spammers had been refining their technique. Given the number of people that open email attachments from people they don't know I can only wonder how many people forked over their credit card number (they probably weren't worried about money, ten million dollars would be arriving from Nigeria any day).
When the emails announcing that someone was "sharing opinions" or "sharing experiences" about me I knew it was the same old trick, dressed up in more ambiguous clothing.
Wonder how many nervous folks have paid to discover who is "sharing experiences" about them. Hope few of them have extended their foolishness as to share their experiences about someone they really know.
I suspect that the people who really pay to share experiences are the same sort of people who buy bulk email addresses. They know what they are doing. Just hoping that you don't have a clue and they'll get a little commission for having fooled you into paying to share your experiences with someone who'll exploit your friend's email addresses.
And some folks will be unwise enough to click on the leave me alone link that contains their email address assuring the sender that they've got a real person they can add to their database.
Not something I'd normally post here but I thought I'd try to insure this warning about the "experience sharing" emails where it'd be seen by the most people.

Comments
Posted by: Terry | May 5, 2004 11:56 AM
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