Here is what I did one day when I figured "if spammers are going to waste my time, I'm going to waste a bit of theirs":
-I got spam from a place offering deals on logo/web design. They were offering a package for "complete corporate branding" for $795
-I wrote them an email explaining that I was very interested, and needed 6 of their packages and wondered what type of deals they would have for bulk purchases for 6 of my sites. I used a generic hotmail address that I created just for this purpose for them to reply to.
This is where the fun starts. They replied back and were very eager to help me out. You could really get a sense of how excited they were @ the prospect of this sale and offered to reduce the package price to $600 for a total of $3600.
More or less, at this point, I started toying with them to such an extent, I'm really surprised they didn't catch on. I had them call me (long distance for them) and kept them on the phone for long periods of time (was sure to place them on hold for loooooong periods acting very busy) and had them do every ounce of work I could get out of them without first paying: quotes, deadlines, drafts, proposals, layouts etc. Then just when they were convinced I was going to send them 1 last email before giving them my credit card info, I sent them an email that instead said:
"Suckers. Did you really think I was going to buy anything from a company that SPAMS people? HA!. Well, anyway, I figured since you deemed it necessary to waste my time by sending your crap spam, that perhaps you'd like a bit of your time wasted. I hope you feel pathetic after all the effort you put into landing this big sale you chumps.(etc etc etc)"
It was bitter sweet getting back at a spammer for once, it felt pretty good. I had fantasies about them rejoicing about their big sale and spending the money before they even had it (I've done that before with my business) Of course, it did waste MORE of my time, but I hope it crosses their mind before spamming again.
Think of it...if there was a "community" of spam fighters all doing the same thing and focousing on 1 company at a time that spams...we could make them lose thousands of dollars in wasted resources/manpower. If we hit them hard enough, they'd be hesitant on putting effort into requests from LEGITIMATE potential buyers in fear that it might be another trick,.
Hrmm....I wonder if I should start up a community to do this?
