James Veitch: The agony of trying to unsubscribe
James Veitch: صراع إلغاء الاشتراك
For James Veitch, a British writer and comedian with a mischievous side, spam emails proved the perfect opening to have some fun, playing the scammers at their own game. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
and she told me this story
وقصت علي هذه القصة
forgotten about
she would pull the car over,
gotten out of the car,
to let me out of the car,
I used to play with myself
I was bored or frustrated.
of information overload. Right?
مليء بالمعلومات الزائدة. حقاً؟
too many marketing emails.
from a supermarket firm,
and it went like this, it said:
at King's Cross opens!!!"
"السوق الآمن " في كنجز كروس !!!"
signing up to that,
that they appear to think
about a shop opening.
to the bottom of the email,
لنهاية الرسالة البريدية،
I got another one that said,
I haven't clicked hard enough.
you guessed it,
at King's Cross opens!!!"
matter in this world
about supermarket chains
a strongly worded email,
بريدا الكترونيا شديد اللهجة
a guy called Dan said,
مساعدتي في سؤالك"
to help me with your query."
excited about the opening!"
the bouncy castle or shall I?"
but there is no celebration planned."
لكن لاتوجد نية للاحتفال"
until,' 'Two weeks until' emails?
بقي ثلاثة أسابيع.. أسبوعان؟
castle was non-refundable."
a few hundred quid, Dan."
for anything you have ordered."
عن أي شيء قد قمت بطلبه"
are in this together."
to make sure people take their shoes off?"
من أن الناس سيخلعون أحذيتهم؟"
with Dan deteriorated somewhat,
your Case Number is ..."
this is ... -- and I, I ....
All I'm doing is collecting case numbers.
كل ما أفعله هو جمع أرقام القضايا
why there was no bouncy castle."
لماذا لم تكن هناك نطيطة ؟"
the end of the story,
that anything -- everything --
as getting out of a car,
كالخروج من السيارة
إذا وجدت اللعبة الصحيحة.
your Case Number is #0000001.]
it was quite labor-intensive,
كانت تحتاج جهدا مكثفا
auto-replier program.
على البريد.
it receives an email from SafeMart,
رسائل من "السوق الآمن"
شكراً لرسالتك ، رقم قضيتك هو..."
your Case Number is ..."
لترقيم القضية كل مرة.
to up the case number every time.
a number of emails going back and forth.
sense of satisfaction to know
are just going to be pinging one another
على بعضها إلى الأبد.
I don't think that's bad.
by the bureaucracy
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
James Veitch - Comedian and writerFor James Veitch, a British writer and comedian with a mischievous side, spam emails proved the perfect opening to have some fun, playing the scammers at their own game.
Why you should listen
Packed full of Nigerian princes, can't miss investment opportunities and eligible Russian brides, James Veitch's correspondence with email spammers leads to surprising, bizarre and usually hilarious results. Out of this experiment came his first book, Dot Con. In 2014, his first solo comedy show The Fundamental Interconnectedness of Everyone with an Internet Connection, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe to wide acclaim. His second show, Genius Bar, focussed on his time working for Apple, chronicles his attempts to fix his relationship using the same troubleshooting techniques he’d been using to fix iMacs, iPhones and iPods. He is currently writing his third show and preparing to tour the UK.
He lives in London with his full body pillow.
James Veitch | Speaker | TED.com