I have been hit by a mini-spate of social network spam in the last 24 hours, and it's reminded me that the most effective way to propagate crap on the Internet is by using the easily-manipulated people using it. Prey on fear, insecurity or greed, and you'll almost certainly have success. Combine two or more and you've hit pay dirt.
Want to find out who's been looking at your profile on Facebook? (That's fear and insecurity)
Want to get cheap/free iPad/iPhone? (That's insecurity and greed)
I guess that Freemium has slightly altered the old wisdom the you don't get something for nothing. “If it seemed too good to be true it probably is” becomes “if it seems to good to be true then your either giving something away without realising it, or it's a scam”. Interestingly, though, it seems that on social networks the Turing Test is remarkably easy to pass – things that seem so obviously machine-generated only need one of your friend's faces attached to it to pass as human.
mmitII 