Recently, somebody posted (in the usenet group "NANAE") a link to this article, which is a discussion of the term "psychopath", how it came to be, what it means, and - generally - how we can determine who is a psychopath or sociopath. The poster was asking the question: "Are spammers psychopaths?" It's a valid question.
The article describes the following experiment:
For his first paper, now a classic, Hare had his subjects watch a countdown timer. When it reached zero, they got a "harmless but painful" electric shock while an electrode taped to their fingers measured perspiration. Normal people would start sweating as the countdown proceeded, nervously anticipating the shock. Psychopaths didn't sweat. They didn't fear punishment -- which, presumably, also holds true outside the laboratory. In Without Conscience, he quotes a psychopathic rapist explaining why he finds it hard to empathize with his victims: "They are frightened, right? But, you see, I don't really understand it. I've been frightened myself, and it wasn't unpleasant."
This is often stated as a similarity that most career spammers have regarding how annoyed the average person can get when receiving their 300th porn spam message of the day, unsolicited. To those of us who despise this as a method of doing "business", it's extremely annoying, insulting, offensive and aggravating. To spammers: it's no big deal. So you got another porn spam? That's too bad. Any by the way: here's an additional 300 more for you. [send]
Nick Danger, in his ongoing tirades on Bulkerforum, seems to think that we have a problem with "honest" people making "honest" money, via what he perceives to be "legitimate" methods:
I am of the opinion that those at "Spamkangaroocourt" are self-indulgent Pseudo-liberal/Neo-socialists who have no respect for and in fact resent honest hard working business folks and are among those hate and destest anyone happier and more successful than they themselves are.
I am sick to death of little rat bastards like them; entitlement minded assholes who will do anything to stop anyone who is out there trying to make a living in any way of which the "Judges" do not approve.
They are arrogant little pricks with nothing better to do than fuck with hard working people and fuck with me.
I resent the Hell out of that.
Funny: the reason judges exist is to decide the legality, the reasonableness, the legitimacy of peoples' actions as regards the law. The law is not something you just ignore, and then complain when someone pipes up that you have broken it. If I kill someone I can't just claim that "that's what I do for a living" and not expect someone to take notice that someone has died as a result of it. That's not generally considered a "legitimate" way of running a business. People are dying from the fake drugs that people like Nick Danger are so intent to spam to us and profit from every single day. (I don't know for sure if he spams pills but it certainly wouldn't surprise me.) So it's more than just someon's opinion, or that of a judge, that committing stock fraud is not a genuine or "honest" way to make a living. This type of career spammer is not operating in any way honestly, or legally.
The only thing I feel "entitled" to is the right to not have to see messages like the ones Nick Danger and those like him send to me every single day, whether I want them or not. And I know I'm not at all alone in that wish.
Of course, Nick Danger doesn't see it that way. No spammer does. They honestly can't understand why people could get so upset receiving literally hundreds if not thousands of spam messages every single day, and why they would want that to stop.
"Honest hard working business folks" don't normally break so many laws while operating their so-called "business", something Mr. Lynn appears to do - or at least have quite a great deal of familiarity of doing - with startling frequency. The key word in his own statement is the word "honest." He didn't even use his real name at any point until it was outed by the spam-court website and myself. He kept the name "Nick Danger" as separate as possible from his real name, Marion Lynn. That's not honest. It's not illegal, sure, but it's not forthright. Genuine businesses are more than happy to identify themselves. More recently, he now signs with "Marion" on his bulkerforum postings.
Spamming stocks is fraudulent activity. That's also not honest. Spamming millions of people who never wanted to hear from you in the first place is not honest. I could go on...
In fact, we can't even make the statement that spamming is (as he claims) "hard work". The hardest part of the work regarding stock spamming in particular seems to involve covering one's tracks (see above re: "honest".) The rest of it is letting your computer do the work. This is why spamming is so popular with a specific lazy portion of Americans. Nick Danger boasts that we who hate receiving the spam he and others like him send every day "hate and destest anyone happier and more successful than they themselves are". I myself am quite happy, and I consider myself to be very successful. I am certainly not jealous of his amassed (alleged) wealth, in the same way that I'm not impressed by the amassed wealth of a crack dealer. This is a common misconception of spammers: "you're just jealous because we make so much money." Usually followed by "it's just marketing. Marketing is everywhere! Do you hate people who advertise on TV?"
I responded to one such diatribe by an anonymous Russian spammer who chose to register to one of the forums I frequent, just so he could spam the forum, then boast about how rich he was:
His post (unedited by me, and still available to be read):
Bill gate do alots of publicity on your msn windows etc etc publicity is every where
anyway i dont mind i probably love to much money but that my problem i have a good car i make 3 or 4 trip/year good house etc
that why i love money and when i work its for money
just different way of thinking
This appears to be how every spammer communicates in any discourse regarding why they should clean their lists and they never seem to get the fact that we all do not care how rich they are. Many child pornographers are also probably rich. Am I jealous of them? No. Should I be? Certainly not.
My response was as follows:
Hey you know what? That's ridiculous. Another different way of thinking is to just piss all over everybody you meet whether you know them or not. I mean hey: you're so rich! Where's the harm in that? People piss every day! Even Bill Gates pisses every day! And look at how rich he is! If he can do it so should you! Wherever you like! That's a great way to live your life. And if people have a problem with you pissing on them well: they all must just be jealous of how fabulously rich you are!
Hey while you're at it maybe you should go around knifing people throughout the day. After all people use knives don't they? Even at the dinner table! You're rich! It shouldn't matter to anyone how you use your stupid knife!
Stock fraud is not a "business": It's fraud. See the dictionary definition of fraud:
fraud Pronunciation[frawd] –noun
1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
2. a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.
3. any deception, trickery, or humbug: That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.
4. a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.
Nowhere in that definition is there any mention of honesty or integrity (in fact the definition contains very specific use of the word "dishonest"), and yet Nick Danger wants us all to think that he's this fine upstanding gentleman while still pursuing his illegal stock spam operations.
Selling fake diplomas is also an illegal act, yet several members of that forum discuss wanting new leads for diplomas, etc., like it's just an everyday product. Like it's toothpaste. I hope they are one day operated on by a "surgeon" who has purchased one of their "diplomas". Or have their taxes done by someone with one of their accountant "diplomas" on the wall. I hope that teaches them exactly what kind of risk they are posing to the public at large.
Did I have to expose this information? No. Did I have to spend all the extra hours digging up Nick Danger's identity (and many others)? No. But I also didn't want to keep hearing from these individuals, or about any of their so-called "products" and "services." Neither do millions of people. Yet the spam continues, and the illegal profiteering continues with it. I am not alone in wishing they would stop sending this crap, and as long as they do: I'm going to keep on investigating them, and occasionally making the data that I dig up available to people who can make a tangible difference in their ability to profit from these scams.
Marion Lynn / Nick Danger can keep on spouting off about how "right" he is in continuing to spam stocks, or spam to lists for which he (probably) obtained zero permission from anyone but another criminal spammer to send to. That does not make him right.
Lynn has apparently begun his (probably frivolous) legal action against Spam-court. So we can add "wasting the court's time" to his list of "honest" methods of making a living.
SiL
