Labor Day Greetings

I was cleaning out my email spam folder when I noticed something surprising. I had several spam emails with the subject "Happy Labor Day" and "Labor Day e-Card".

Now, do I actually believe that the emails actually had something to do with Labor Day? Of course not. Did I even click through to the links in the emails, to see what they were really trying to sell me? Certainly not.

What I found interesting, though, was the fact that some spammer actually thought that Labor Day was something that would get a victim's attention. Spam subjects often address deep human fears: Body part size. Accessibility of prescription drugs. Finding Love. And now...labor.

I did a whois search at Sam Spade for the URLs that were linked in the message, and it looks like they lead back to US service providers. In other words, the originators of this particular spam do not seem to be in Eastern Europe or Nigeria or whatever. This would appear to be home grown, culturally-sensitive spam.

Apparently spammers are betting that Americans are starting to recognize that their labor is something to worry about or maybe even celebrate. Why else spam about it?

You might answer my observation by pointing out that spammers simply thought that people, having a day off, would be more likely to be on their computers and responding to spam. But I don't recall ever receiving a Memorial Day greeting or a July 4th greeting or even a New Year's greeting. Labor Day seems to be something special that spammers are guessing would attract people's attention. In my books, that's a good sign.