James Veitch: The agony of trying to unsubscribe
James Veitch: Udręka wypisania się z listy mailingowej
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
która opowiedziała mi coś,
forgotten about
she would pull the car over,
parkowała samochód,
gotten out of the car,
to let me out of the car,
I used to play with myself
I was bored or frustrated.
zawsze gdy czułem nudę lub frustrację.
of information overload. Right?
too many marketing emails.
za dużo maili z reklamą.
from a supermarket firm,
and it went like this, it said:
at King's Cross opens!!!"
SafeMart na King's Cross!!!".
signing up to that,
zapisania się na listę mailingową
that they appear to think
about a shop opening.
to the bottom of the email,
I got another one that said,
I haven't clicked hard enough.
you guessed it,
at King's Cross opens!!!"
przy King's Cross!!!"
matter in this world
about supermarket chains
a strongly worded email,
a guy called Dan said,
to help me with your query."
i dmuchane zamki do skakania...".
excited about the opening!"
podekscytowany tym otwarciem!"
the bouncy castle or shall I?"
czy mam się tym zająć?"
but there is no celebration planned."
ale nie planujemy fety".
until,' 'Two weeks until' emails?
'tylko dwa tygodnie'?
castle was non-refundable."
za dmuchany zamek".
a few hundred quid, Dan."
stracimy kilkaset funtów".
for anything you have ordered."
za nic, co pan zamówił".
are in this together."
to make sure people take their shoes off?"
czy ludzie zdejmują buty?"
with Dan deteriorated somewhat,
relacje z Danem nieco się pogorszyły,
your Case Number is ..."
this is ... -- and I, I ....
All I'm doing is collecting case numbers.
why there was no bouncy castle."
gdzie jest dmuchany zamek".
the end of the story,
that anything -- everything --
as getting out of a car,
your Case Number is #0000001.]
it was quite labor-intensive,
auto-replier program.
automatycznych odpowiedzi.
it receives an email from SafeMart,
że na każdy mail z SafeMart,
your Case Number is ..."
to up the case number every time.
numer sprawy zwiększa się o jeden.
a number of emails going back and forth.
sense of satisfaction to know
are just going to be pinging one another
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