Aug 19 2006
Call Out Gouranga!
Published by Ivan Groznii at 8:08 am under Geek Life, Reflections |
Most of the spam that comes into my inbox is extremely boring. I have days when I get so many ads for dodgy pharmaceuticals that I fantasize about force-feeding spammers boxes of Cialis. Cialis, Viagra, Wellbutrin, Viagra, Cialis, Online Poker, Business Credit Cards, stocks in Chinese gold companies: the endless muck of spam just keeps flowing in, and is only notable for its tedium and its obvious chicanery.
This week, however, I received the following spam message:
Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ….
That which brings the highest happiness!!
Unlike most spam, I read it a few times. I wondered what in the world “Gouranga” was; my first guess was that it was a Japanese energy drink. However, unlike most spam, it had no link in it leading to a dodgy website waiting to cram my computer full of spyware. Were spammers getting sophisticated and trying to build brand awareness for the miracle drink / drug, Gouranga, with this mysterious message?
I did some research; apparently Gouranga is the nickname of the founder of the Hare Krishnas, the Hindu sect once famous for asking for donations at airports, and who are now better known for dancing around Leicester Square and chanting. So this message was religious spam, which is rare.
Rarer still, there is something to this “calling out Gouranga” business. Perhaps it’s my pronunciation of it, but saying it to my girlfriend made her smile. “Gouranga” is one of those words that’s inherently funny to say, like “kumquat”. It’s a function of language that certain syllables strung together do create amusement; Gouranga is definitely one of those. Does this mean that the Hare Krishnas sit around giving each other amusing names like their founder to engender laughter? If so, they are certainly more entertaining than I previously thought.
The spammer sending this particular message appears to have only one e-mail address, NitaiGouranga@aol.com. Unlike most spammers, this one actually replied to a query about his / her activities. Apparently his / her motivations are fairly simple:
I am just very enthusiastic person, who wants everybody to be happy.
If this an honest statement, this certainly was the first bit of spam I’ve ever received that was interested in happiness rather than quick profits. More importantly, they only sent it to me once. So hats off to the Hare Krishnas in this sense, in terms of world religions they may be far down the pecking order in size and wealth, but in terms of sending spam, they’re by far top of the class.
One Response to “Call Out Gouranga!”
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Wow, that is a cute spammer
I once happened to be on the mailing list of a spammer advertising German adult sites. His messages would always consist of two paragraphs, describing the bawdy offers in question in an almost prosaic way. They made quite a good read because one could notice that the author was trying to create something literature-like but on the other hand, his grammar and spelling were terrible. Spammers, what bizarre a people!