Emailing Me Internet Marketing Spam

by Ari Herzog on May 20, 2009 · 5 comments

I’m accustomed to receiving email spam, but internet marketing pitches are a new breed because they arrive in my inbox, not my spam folder.

The good ones are personable and hard to tell if generic text. The bad ones, like the email I copy below, include spelling errors and attribute me to the wrong website.

Hi

My name is Molly Hall. I’ve just visited your website futurelearn.co.za
and I was wondering if you’d be interested in exchanging links with my
website. I can offer you a HOME PAGE link back from my SEO and Web
Design website which is http://www.saftapp.com/

As mentioned, your link would be placed on the site home page, not on
any “links” pages which may be buried in the site somewhere. I’m sure
this exchange would be benefitial for both of our sites, helping
towards increasing our visibility in search engines.

If you are interested, please add the following information to your
website and kindly let me know when it’s ready. I’ll do the same for
you in less than 24 hours, otherwise you can delete my link from your
site.

Title: Hosted Desktop
URL: http://www.managednetworks.co.uk/
Description: Hosted desktop support services from Managed Networks.

I hope you have a nice day and thank you for your time.
Best regards;

Molly Hall
Web Marketing Consultant

I love James Cridland’s response to the spam he received, which I might tailor for Molly.

One more thing, check out what appeared after Molly’s title:

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A SPAM OR AUTOMATED EMAIL, IT’S ONLY A REQUEST FOR A LINK EXCHANGE. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS NOT BEEN ADDED TO ANY LISTS, AND YOU WILL NOT BE CONTACTED AGAIN.IF YOU’D LIKE TO MAKE SURE WE DON’T CONTACT YOU AGAIN, PLEASE FILL IN THE FOLLOWING FORM: HTTP://WWW.NOMOREMAILS.COM; OR WRITE AN EMAIL TO STOP@NOMOREMAILS.COM. PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES FOR CONTACTING YOU.

Yeah right. If you visit that website, you are asked to fill out a form which I can guess gives you opt-in permission to receive more spam. At least I’m not alone receiving it.

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  3. Internet Fame: Who Has It and Why?

Comments:

{ 5 comments }

1 Stuart Foster May 20, 2009 at 4:50 PM Twitter: @stuartfoster

Dear Sir,

You may be surprised to receive this letter from me
since you do not know me personally. The purpose of my
introduction is that I am Stuart Foster, the first son
of MERIMBE TUTU SALINGO ,the most popular black farmer
in Zimbabwe who was recently murdered in the land
dispute in my country.

I got your contact through network online hence
decided to write you. Before the death of my father,
he had taken me to Johannesburg to deposit
the sum of US8.5 Million (Eight Million, Five Hundred
United States dollars)in one of the private security
company, as he foresaw the looming danger in Zimbabwe
this money was deposited in a box as gemstones to
avoid much demurrage from security company. This
amount was meant for the purchase of new machines and
chemicals for the Farms and establishment of new farms
in Swaziland. This land problem
came when Zimbabwean President Mr.Robert Mugabe
introduced a new Land Act Reform wholly affected the
rich white farmers and some few black farmers.And this
resulted to the killing and mob action
by Zimbabwean war veterans and some lunatics in the
society. In fact a lot of people were killed
because of this Land reform Act for which my father
was one of the victims.

It is against this background that, I and my family
fled Zimbabwe for fear of our lives and are currently
staying in Spain where we are seeking
political asylum and moreso have decided to
transfer my father^Òs money to a more reliable foreign
account. since the law of Spain prohibits a
refugee (asylum seeker) to open any bank account or to
be involved in any financial transaction throughout
the territorial zone of Spain, As the eldest son
of my father, I am saddled with the responsibility of
seeking a genuine foreign
account where this money could be transferred without
the knowledge of my government who are bent on taking
everything we have got. The South African
government seems to be playing along with them. I am
faced with the dilemma of moving this amount of money
out of South Africa for fear of going through the same
experience in future, both countries have similar
political history. As a businessman,I am seeking for a
partner who I have to entrust my future and of my
family in his hands, I must let you know that this
transaction is risk free. If you accept to assist me
and my family,all I want you to do for me, is to
arrangements with the security company to clear the
consignment(funds) from their affiliate office here in
Spain as i have already given directives for
the consignment to be brought to Spain from
South Africa.But before then all modalities will have
to be put in place e.g change of ownership of the
consignment and This money I intend to use for
investment.

I have two options for you. Firstly you can choose to
have certain percentage of the money for nominating
your account for this transaction.
Or you can go into partnership with me for the proper
profitable investment of the money in your country.
Whichever the option you want, feel free to notify me.
I have also mapped out 5% of this money for all kinds
of expenses incurred in the process of this
transaction. If you do not prefer a partnership I am
willing to give you 15% of the money while the
remaining 80% will be for my investment in your
country. Contact me with my private E-mail
address(mbekisalingo@zwallet.com) while I implore you
to maintain the absolute secrecy required in this
transaction.

Thanks, GOD BLESS YOU

Yours Faithfully,
Mbeki (Stuart Foster) Salingo

Stuart Foster´s last blog post..Where is Mobile Going?

2 Julie Roads May 21, 2009 at 9:38 AM Twitter: @writingroads

I get them ALL the f%$&$ time. Yuckity yuck yuck.

Julie Roads´s last blog post..A tale of two bags

3 Danny Brown May 22, 2009 at 2:20 AM Twitter: @DannyBrown

I like spam. Particularly spam fritters. Nice on a sandwich as well, with ketchup.

What’s that doofus Stuart Foster on about? I’m thinking he’s never had a good can of spam in his life. Crazy dude. They eat paella in Spain. That’s HAM, not SPAM.

Danny Brown´s last blog post..Better Twitter (and ROI) with Topify, Seesmic Desktop and bit.ly

4 Eric Stanley October 5, 2009 at 2:19 AM

hahaha this is funny, but still true! my inbox must be filled with a lot of junks at the moment too :)

Websites design | Letter heads design | Envelopes design

5 Benjamin November 2, 2009 at 12:32 PM

I came across your blog quite by accident searching for something quite different, but I’ve just spent the last hour here, reading your website whilst sipping my coffee, thanks for helping me procrastinate ;)

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