i think that the only people who actually earn something are not those who send zillions of spams, but those who provide them with software, technology, etc. it's just liake with amway and that sort of thing, where the idea itself is more worthy than the final product i guess

I think some spammers must actually make a profit. The costs are so low that all they need is a conversion rate of 0.001% or something. Send out 100,000 emails and get 100 customers.

I also suspect that there are people who make a lot of money selling spamming as a business opportunity. Selling the mailing list and software (and maybe the product too) to suckers is probably good business. Especially in these trying economic times. 9 out of 10 of those suckers make nothing, but they generate a fuck load of spam...

Course someone out there might actually know the facts. Sounds like a good investigative journalist story to me...