This quote from an article in 2005 was meant to be completely negative. Its meaning has changed significantly in the last ten years though. On the contrary, due to the crude and sometimes completely absurd translations from web applications the poetic nonsense which spam emails often feature became topic of hilarious office talk.

Exotic women who intend to marry you, tons of Viagra or the secret recipe to fight baldness. Despite several filters to protect from them, those unpopular spam emails still slip through the net and litter our inboxes. Working in the communication industry, where you proclaim your contact data as much as possible, the inboxes are even at a higher risk. Being a contact person you want a high visibility. But that comes with a price. Not only customers, stakeholder or journalists will find out about your contact information, but also more dubious persons. That is the crux working in Press Relations.

„Ich werde mich freien von Sie zu huren“(freely translated: „I will free me to whoring from you“)

Peter Böhlig, editor of “Clap” and Jörg Allgäuer, Corp-Comms-Chief at Sky Deutschland skimmed through their inboxes and compiled the funniest spam email bloopers into a book.

But this idea is not completely new. Last year, Happy Schnitzel aka Sue Reindke published a book covering the same topic: “Spam: Erregt? Schlank werden, easy! -Eilmeldung – Experten sind schockiert: 1.274 Euro in 17 Stunden! Es muss aktualisieren Sie Ihr Profil. Gottesfürchtige Babys zu Adoption“ (freely translated: „Spam: Horny? Get in shape, easily! – News Alert – Experts are shocked: 1.274 Euros in 17 hours! It must refresh you your profile. Pious babies free for adoption”). The very title presages numerous examples.

But there is good news as well: According to Symantec in June 2015 spam fell below 50% of all received emails for the first time since September 2003.

Where does the word “spam” come from?

Its origin comes from a sketch of the legendary comedians Monty Python. The scene shows a bar, where the more than intensive consideration of spiced ham (spam in short) on the menu resembles the flood of spam emails in our inboxes.

So the next time you got one of those charming spam emails: do not get angry, memorize the wording for the next coffee break and remember: „Always look on the bright side of life“