Spam Canned?

Charles Arthur in the Guardian wonders if an older and wiser internet user base has learned to ignore Spam:

Spam isn't the surprise it once was. Emails offering the usual three Ps - pills, pornography and poker - aren't going to find an amazed western audience, because many of the people who would want such things went online in the past few years."

Apparently, the amount of it circulating has reduced, which is probably a good thing. I guess, apart from ignoring it, people are a lot more wary of giving out their email address than they were at the beginning.

Human nature doesn't change, though, does it? There have always been con artists, able to prey upon the greed of others. It's the greed that makes you credulous, after all. And if people are wise to it now, well, maybe it's time to try something else, to follow the money elsewhere.

Apart from the greedy, there are always the young and the generous. Plenty of people were "conned" by that nasty frog ring-tone thing into subscribing to an expensive monthly download service, weren't they? And then there are the fake charity appeals, like the mis-spelled Tsunami one, to which people willingly donate.

The frog-con worked, because the targets were children. If the spammers go away for a few years, they could easily make a comeback when those too young to know about Spam are online.