If you went through J-school, you learned the importance of writing a catchy news headline. Spammers, apparently catching on to the fact that most of us don’t click on the “Increase the size of your dong” e-mails, are developing new ways to snag your attention as you scan the list of e-mails in your spam filter.
While there are still plenty of subject lines reminding us that our lovemaking is inadequate and Rolex watches impress others, spammers are getting creative by using news-related subject lines.
Many fall into the entertainment news genre and play on the fact that your average person may have only the slightest idea of what’s happening with celebrities. For instance, maybe you heard that something or other happened to Shia LaBeouf last weekend, but you’re a little hazy on the details. So, the subject line “Shia loses hand in accident” may sound credible enough to draw your click. Or one we saw a few weeks ago: “Angelina dies in miscarriage”—you may have had a foggy idea that Angelina Jolie was pregnant, so isn’t it possible that she DID die in miscarriage? Click.
Some touch on Internet topics that you, an e-mail user, might naturally be interested in, such as: “FBI Watching Possible Terrorists on Facebook.” (This would, of course, be of especial interest to terrorist who are using Facebook.) Others, of course, are silly enough to immediately trigger suspicion. Try: “Elton John Dies in Rocket Ship” (oh, the irony!) or “Cannibal Tribe Invades Civilisation” (well, I’m guessing by the British spelling that they’ve only reached the UK, so I should have plenty of time to make myself look less delicious).
Of course, if you were to click through to these e-mails, it’s the same garbled spiels for low-cost Viagra and knockoff handbags. Eventually, people will get wise to these “almost” headlines and spammers will have to change tactics again to catch your attention.
What makes you click?
—Bellapoison
Of course, when you click, you
