Spamming with Aristotle rhetoric

(16 June ~ 20 June)
A June 2008 Symantec report has found spammers are cashing in on recent natural disasters in Myanmar and China.

But Z. Jian has discovered a formula of Aristotle persuasion used in that email sample in the report.

The first two paragraphs appeal to people’s logos---Aristotle persuasion by logic. They describe the facts of those disasters and give statistics.

Then appealing to readers’ pathos---Aristotle persuasion by emotion, the third paragraph goes: “You can help those affected by countless crises around the world each year by making a financial gift to the XXX response fund.”

Finally a link to a legitimate website is an appeal to people’s ethos---Aristotle persuasion by credibility. The report says: “The scammer used a legitimate website and inserted a fraudulent page under the root domain.”

Symantec senior customer response analyst Amanda Grady has given some advice on how to resist the power of persuasion.

“An unsolicited email is the first sign. Other things you could look out for include poor spelling on the web page and the absence of other verifiable contact information or the presence of incorrect contact information.

“Unnamed or personal bank accounts would be highly suspicious as well.”