I just deleted about 8900 comments in the spam folder, and in no time, three more were added. The economics of this are amazing. It’s cheap to send out zillions of messages, even semi-customized ones. But they are obviously ads for junk! Even if you are in the market for Ugg boots, would you be click on a comment that read something like “In testimony before the Permanent Court of International Justice established by League of Nations BEST PRICES UGG BOOTS in the wake of the first World War”? No, you wouldn’t. Who would?
While the investment is very small, is there any return on it? Servers are cheap, but they are not free. It doesn’t take a lot of time to program a spambot, but it takes some time. Are there enough people who fall for this? Who are these people?
Or is the real game selling all the services used to block spam? Maybe.