Spammers go through a lot of trouble to sell “male enhancement” pills, “genuine” college degrees, and other schlock to a bunch of people who don’t want anything to do with them. And yet the emails keep coming.

So how many unsuspecting rubes does it take to keep these spammers in business? According to Techradar.com, spammers can make a ton of money if just one person in 12,500,000 responds.

(Thanks, Newmark’s Door.)

The Virginia Supreme Court has overturned its conviction of spammer Jeremy Jaynes on the grounds that the state’s anti-spam law could potentially infringe on free speech. In 2003, Jaynes was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for violation of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act. After a February 2008 appeal, the court voted 4-3 to uphold the verdict, but later decided to revisit the defendant’s argument that the law violated the First Amendment. This month they concluded that the law is "unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mail including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” It’s important to note, however, that this won't lead to a male-enhancement products free-for-all: The federal CAN-SPAM Act is still in place.

(Thanks, Maud Newton.)

Plenty of spam flows through our e-mail boxes, the majority of it hawking cheap Viagra and other prescription drugs. All the predictable angles are, well, predictably exploited. Want better sex? More sex? Have we ever got a deal for you…

Then, this morning, this subject line:

Quality medications should be affordable to all.

Grammatically correct, no typos, and a message that surely would resonate with the Utne Reader audience—could this possibly be spam?

Of course it was. The e-mail contained nothing more than a dubious link, a promise of cheap drugs. But for a brief moment, I had a vision of an army of spammers, diligently hammering away at their keyboards, trying to bring quality, affordable medication to a nation in pressing need of healthcare reform. Spammers, spamming for the greater good. Then I sighed and clicked “block sender.”—Julie Hanus