Here you go:
I got online in the 90s. At the time, the vast majority of Internet users relied on AOL exclusively. For those unaware, AOL was a walled garden Internet service. Internet security and privacy was pretty much unheard of at this point. As such, AOL was pretty stupid when it came to releasing new features. The tipping point was when they released the 'user directory' feature that was supposed to make it easier for users to connect to others. The user directory was literally a searchable database of every single AOL user in existence. In other words, the vast majority of Internet users could now be located and contacted via e-mail and instant message. You could even see when users were online, as well as other useful info such as their full name, likes, dislikes, gender, location, chatrooms frequented, gender preference, etc.
At age 14, I met someone who drove a Lamborghini Diablo in his twenties. He claimed it was paid for through spamming (I had no reason not to believe him). Anyhow, he actually became a bit of a mentor and introduced me to the world of spamming. In the beginning, I used a shitty AOL app that collected screen names from chatrooms. I'd then manually spam a porn affiliate link after collecting ~500 names. The conversion rate was incredible because users were very gullible back then. Keep in mind this was before Google... a lot of the time you'd stumble on a useful webpage purely through happenstance or word of mouth. As a result, users were much more likely to click links from strangers.
I ended up making $4k spamming in my first month which wasn't a whole lot but I only spent maybe ~30-60min a week doing it. I then re-invested the money into another computer and developed a better spamming app in VB that automated almost everything. It would occasionally glitch out but for the most part it was an automated and self-contained system. This earned me $10k in a single week. Once again, I re-invested the money and bought more computers. I soon had a computer room going with approximately 35 computers with a dedicated T1 line spamming 24/7. At my highest point, I made around $35k a month after taxes (and yes I paid taxes).
Over time, I further improved my app so that it would create more targeted ads. I eventually had custom apps that did different types of spamming. Here's a few examples:
- One computer acted as a female in straight chatrooms. It would respond to ASL requests with "18/f". This would result in a ton of PMs asking for pictures or something similar and it'd then respond with a straight porn aff link.
- Another computer would do the same as above yet target gay chatrooms.
- Another computer spammed random profiles via email. I actually configured it to also spam compuserve and prodigy users (those were the other two most popular ISPs back then)
- Another computer would spam entire chatrooms at a specific duration (e.g. gay chats every 30 minutes with gay porn, straight chats every 30min with straight porn, etc.).
- Another computer was a niche machine... it'd target very specific porn chatrooms. It also infected users in the pedo chats with a "deltree" virus link because why not (I couldn't resist and I was still an immature kid after all).
When 2000 rolled around, things started to get more difficult. A lot of users were now familiar with online ads and competition was a significant problem. AOL users were also starting to move to cable/sat/etc. Profit began to take a serious hit as a result. When the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 was passed, it was sort of the straw that broke the camels back. It brought SPAM into the national spotlight. Suddenly, the president was talking about spam and it was a common conversation around dinner tables across the USA. Internet users were now aware of it and the majority knew not to click links in e-mails, chats, and IMs from strangers. As a result, conversion rates plummeted to the point it simply was not economically feasible (especially considering the potential legal consequences). A lot of spammers moved onto fraud and other more profitable illicit ventures. I, on the other hand, cut my losses and stopped altogether.
