The Smarmy Carny

This post has been re-posted at Random Fodder, Novac's personal blog.

This week, I got hooked up with Christian Paid E-mails. CPE is a paid-to-read program with a slightly Christian bent to it.

Christian Paid E-mails is only the second PTR program I have enrolled in. From what I can tell, it isn't much different than other PTR programs, except the Christian part. The site uses CashCrusader, just as many PTR sites are using these days.

The site offers a page detailing how to get saved, and click confirmations say "God Bless You Always." Another nice thing is that you can (assumably) click away without worrying about adult sites being listed, though I have noticed that a high percentage of the sites have the oh-so-annoying and not-so-subtle True girls-in-bikinis-and-lingerie banners that have already overrun Hotmail and MySpace.

Members who sign up at CPE for free can get payouts after earning $20. Sign up now, and you'll get a nice little $1 startup bonus, which is always a treat. (There are optional paid memberships that will get you lower payout rates, additional referral links, etc.)

Of course, you can also earn money from referrals. Be one of my referrals, and I can get more money too.

This post has been re-posted at Random Fodder, Novac's personal blog.

I received an e-mail from PayPal yesterday that was — get this — actually from PayPal!

The content of the e-mail had nothing to do with unauthorized access to my account, the need to update my login information, or the addition of a strange e-mail address. It was all boring stuff about the PayPal Money Market Fund.

The most interesting thing I noticed about this e-mail? Unlike every phishing e-mail, this one had no links . . . not even valid ones back to paypal.com.

I couldn't resist sharing the opening line from some spam/junk mail I received today:

[Brand name removed] is an omnipotent formula. It increases sperm production by 500%.

Apparently this product not only unlimited power and influence over all, but it also quintuples your sperm production. Bonus!

Yeah, yeah, I know that it's only claiming to be a formula that is omnipotent, but the wording is a bit too vague. That's what I get for actually reading some of my spam mail.

According to an article at MosNews, notorious Russian spammer Vardan Kushnir was found dead in his apartment.

Spamming isn't currently illegal in Russia, but apparently the citizens have their own way of preventing spam.