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February 14, 2005

A mortgage spam came in today that is so "out there" that I had to share it with you. It asks me to visit "our secure site" to fill out an application (the link is to a regular http: site, not a secure https: site). The form, I'm told, "does not ask for any sensative [sic] info." Yet, after filling it out, I'll get a 180,000.00 (no monetary units) loan from "one of our lenders."

If I assume they're talking dollars here, they must not know that I live in an urban California area. That amount of money would cover, perhaps, a one-car garage of the homes I see for sale. What I'd like to know is what kind of lender would grant a 180K loan (in any denomination, including yen) without having extracted some kind of "sensative" info from me? Neither lenders nor loan sharks work without knowing plenty about their borrowers.

In case the deal so far has not convinced me, the message contains a "pps" (I guess the P.S. got lost somewhere). Read it aloud:

pps: It does NOT cost anything, just fillup a online form - we request you to take just 2 minutes off your valuable time.

Based on the details of the clickable link in the message, this was sent (through a DSL-connected zombie at Ameritech) as an affiliate mortgage lead spam. It's someone waaay down the ladder in the spam chain, probably someone who responded to a "make money on the Internet in your underwear" spam. He or she gets paid for every form that you "fillup," whether the info is valid or not (and perhaps for every visit to the site). It only encourages the spammer to continue. Wouldn't it be great to reward this stupid spammer with Zero Response? Anything to get him or her to put on some pants.