Move over, James Veitch. The internet's spammers have a new threat to contend with.
Spam emails are the worst, am I right? They clutter up one's inbox, even if they are shifted over to a separate spam submenu. The content they feature is mildly amusing at best and creatively bankrupt at worst. While technology and the likes of Gmail have made significant strides in filtering out spam mail, the occasional letter does float into one's main inbox, and opens itself like an annoying pest to some of the more susceptible users across the internet, who are unaware of the dangers a scam mail can pose. Then again, users have found rather fun methods of getting their own back with spammers, as we'll now discuss.
This specific threat comes from the rather simple yet effectively villainous machinations of one Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, better known across the internet as the founder of The Next Web (TNW), a company founded upon the basis of helping tech-related startups in Europe through a series of helpful annual conferences. But what does it entail, really? To make matters absurdly simple, it harnesses the spammer's greatest asset against them: the email.
This author's sure that explains almost nothing, so allow us to delve into further detail. Spammers showcasing scamming tendencies specifically tend to send tedious emails. Typically these emails conclude with asking for some sort of monetary exchange, feeding off of the more inexperienced or gullible users across the internet. What Mr. Boris ended up doing as a fun activity is creating a fake company handle, and redirecting spammers to the email bill@noprocurement.com, claiming to be a John who's currently leaving the fictional Nordic Procurement Services office, and that Bill Whiskoney is the man spammers need to target.
Emailing Bill, however, will kick off an automated cycle of replies. First of all, Bill will claim to be leaving on a sabbatical and redirect users to helena@noprocurement.com, stating that she manages "bigger budgets". Emailing Helena will then lead users to Theresa, who will kindly suggest Martha as an option, who will further redirect the "customer" to John, beginning the cycle anew, to the ever-clear frustration of the spammer at hand.
While this may certainly not be as elaborate as the near-whimsical and personalized pranks James Veitch attempts with online scammers, there's a sweet sense of justice in spam mail being undone by a near mirror image of it's own visage; an automated set of emails that anyone could pry apart if they take the time to quickly read the mail at hand. Also, it's just sort of fun seeing what TNW's top minds are at when conference season is having some downtime. A CEO's idea of a good time being hilariously cracking down on scammers is it's own form of amusing.
Read next: How To Stop Receiving Spam Emails In Gmail?
Spam emails are the worst, am I right? They clutter up one's inbox, even if they are shifted over to a separate spam submenu. The content they feature is mildly amusing at best and creatively bankrupt at worst. While technology and the likes of Gmail have made significant strides in filtering out spam mail, the occasional letter does float into one's main inbox, and opens itself like an annoying pest to some of the more susceptible users across the internet, who are unaware of the dangers a scam mail can pose. Then again, users have found rather fun methods of getting their own back with spammers, as we'll now discuss.
This specific threat comes from the rather simple yet effectively villainous machinations of one Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, better known across the internet as the founder of The Next Web (TNW), a company founded upon the basis of helping tech-related startups in Europe through a series of helpful annual conferences. But what does it entail, really? To make matters absurdly simple, it harnesses the spammer's greatest asset against them: the email.
This author's sure that explains almost nothing, so allow us to delve into further detail. Spammers showcasing scamming tendencies specifically tend to send tedious emails. Typically these emails conclude with asking for some sort of monetary exchange, feeding off of the more inexperienced or gullible users across the internet. What Mr. Boris ended up doing as a fun activity is creating a fake company handle, and redirecting spammers to the email bill@noprocurement.com, claiming to be a John who's currently leaving the fictional Nordic Procurement Services office, and that Bill Whiskoney is the man spammers need to target.
Emailing Bill, however, will kick off an automated cycle of replies. First of all, Bill will claim to be leaving on a sabbatical and redirect users to helena@noprocurement.com, stating that she manages "bigger budgets". Emailing Helena will then lead users to Theresa, who will kindly suggest Martha as an option, who will further redirect the "customer" to John, beginning the cycle anew, to the ever-clear frustration of the spammer at hand.
I created a fake company to play around with spammers, and it is just such a joy to use, and you can use it too.
— Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (@Boris) February 12, 2021
A thread:
I receive an email from a scammer/spammer. Like this: pic.twitter.com/l3IvTckIig
Or, next time you receive spam reply with this:
— Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (@Boris) February 12, 2021
“Please forward this email to bill@noprocurement.com, and delete my email, as I’ll be changing jobs soon, and this email address will no longer be active.”
While this may certainly not be as elaborate as the near-whimsical and personalized pranks James Veitch attempts with online scammers, there's a sweet sense of justice in spam mail being undone by a near mirror image of it's own visage; an automated set of emails that anyone could pry apart if they take the time to quickly read the mail at hand. Also, it's just sort of fun seeing what TNW's top minds are at when conference season is having some downtime. A CEO's idea of a good time being hilariously cracking down on scammers is it's own form of amusing.
Read next: How To Stop Receiving Spam Emails In Gmail?
