And so it grows.

Why would anyone scam an unemployed person? For the unemployment benefits or the contents of a depleted bank account, playing on the last discard of an empty hand?

As I scan the growing pile of junk mail cluttering an overburdened inbox, it’s clear that at least they understand I no longer need Viagra, or penile enlargement, although the Valium is tempting. Even fraudulent Nigerian bankers have given up on me.

 Instead, a new crop offer hope and change in the form of refinancing, loan modification, and a deal not to miss - making a fortune typing or with Google surveys. The most optimistic amongst the swarm, offer a powerhouse investment opportunity, presumably using that stimulus check now available to me, shouted in capital letters and obscure spam filter defeating symbols.

More worrying is the semi-credible offers that link my first name, email address and street address in a carefully crafted seduction to accept a new lower mortgage repayment.

I wish I could use these same offers to heat the house, burning them in the wood stove as I do the junk that comes courtesy of the US postal system. Instead, they consume power and bandwidth and on one sad occasion, four days of effort wiping and completely re-installing my PC’s operating system.

The time is approaching rapidly when I must leave my email address to expire, lapse or whatever happens when we move on to a new one. For nearly 10 years, it has been an everyday part of my life, like sleeping and breakfast, growing with me, and me with it.  Embracing more friends, more subscriptions, and more customer service files until I have no idea what may happen if I simply ignore it.

Somehow, I just cannot abandon it to the masses.

This entry was posted on 3. March 2009 at 13:06 and is filed under thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.