Every once in a while I like to take a look at the headers of the spam accruing in Google’s Spam folder for me.  There’s the usual assortment of titles indicating that, were I male, certain areas of my anatomy could be enlarged for the benefit of the ladies.  There are also offers, usually made in ALL CAPS, to help someone down on their luck by acting as a money agent to allow them to transfer funds from some foreign company.  Sometimes there are job offers, promising to let me work from home.  Nearly always, there are some number of medicinal offerings, beyond the ones promising enlargement of male organs.  Once in a while, someone tries to convince me that a certain stock is certain to go through the roof and I just need to get in on the ground floor.

These are all apparently items that folks have tested to some degree or other and believe will cause some percentage of folks to click through and either pick up the virus or spend some money or go to a website that will then let them pick up a virus.  Once in a while, though, someone shows some flair and comes up with a new angle.  I’m always interested in what the angle is, as much for its commentary on what’s thought to be attractive to the general population.

Turns out, the new thing is shoes.  There were 54 items in my Spam folder related to shoes, of the 813 Google Spam items has nicely sequestered away for me.  3 or 4 look to be from legitimate merchandisers with whom I’ve done business with before, though not as a shoe shopper.  The rest are honest to goodness spam.

Who buys enough shoes that this is the hot new spam?  I’ll send these messages your way.  They look to offer amazing deal, from Google’s preview of the message.  Gosh, I could get Gucci or Prada or high-end sandals for what I presume must be amazing prices.  Just let me know if you want these messages, and I’ll set up a Google filter to forward them your way.

P.S.  I’m highly amused that Google’s AdWords account expiration notification ended up sorted by them into their own Spam folder.