I got more fun spam today, and though I had sworn off spam-related Email Fails for a little while, I couldn’t resist. Because this one highlights an issue that I find really annoying in legitimate emails as well.

It’s the multi person/multi-address Email Fail.

In this particular instance, the email is from acmeorders@gmail.com. And the name associated with that email address is, let’s say  Roger Smith. The Reply-to address is a FranklinRobbins@hushmail.com. So that’s two different domains, two different people’s names. So far.

Now we move to the body of the email, where the reader is instructed to  ”contact me at my other email address, Ralph@yetanotherdomain.com.”

And finally, the email is signed by Hilary Somethingorother.

Four people’s names, three addresses.

One irritated email recipient.

It’s super annoying to get emails from addresses you’re not supposed to reply to. Or emails with multiple addresses. Or emails that have the address they want you to reply to in the body of the message, instead of just sending their email from that address. Or emails that have so many different people’s name associated with them.

Who’s sending the message? What address should I reply to? Make it easy for me, people, this is ridiculous!

Just for kicks I sent an email to all three email addresses. Immediately after sending, I got the bounce message that the Reply-to address was full.

Perfect.

I’ll update if I get any results from the other two email addresses. But don’t hold your breath.

Update: I got a reply from a totally different Gmail address (YummyFrank, very professional), signed by Sasha, From Luz. Addressed to somebody else, and telling me to respond to Lisa@. I love these guys.

Seriously. The following lists are subject lines on emails sent to one of my email addresses in a single day, all from the same sender, all trying to sell me pharmaceuticals I don’t want, never asked for, and have never purchased. Each of them has the same graphic, same message. But look at the subject lines:

Please read
Fire near your house
Newsletter
Please, send my data to him
I saw your work, need to talk
Confirm please
Updates
We expected you to come
Found your card
Where are your papers, have you taken them
From admin
Delivery status notification
Order status
Account deletion request
Member services
We’re updating your account
We’ve received an answer to your request

Whoever this is has been sending me the same message, over and over again, for months now. I never click. I report them all as spam. Most of them come with address spoofing so they show up as from myself.

How can this possibly pay for itself? Is there anybody so stupid as to buy from these people? And, given that I suppose there is, can it possibly pay off to send hundreds of the same message to a single person? Like I’m going to suddenly change my mind? If they’re trolling for victims, does this infuriating repetition work? Wouldn’t it make sense to cross an email off the list after it has failed, say 500 times?

And the sneaky messages intended to get me to open these emails … they aren’t working, but they do make me wonder: does anybody buy from anybody who lies to them with the first contact? Can deceptive subject lines be good for spammers?