James Veitch: The agony of trying to unsubscribe
James Veitch: Agonia efortului de a te șterge de pe listă
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
și mi-a povestit o întâmplare
forgotten about
she would pull the car over,
gotten out of the car,
to let me out of the car,
ca să mă lase să cobor,
I used to play with myself
I was bored or frustrated.
eram plictisit sau frustrat.
of information overload. Right?
excesului informațional. Corect?
too many marketing emails.
prea multe e-mailuri de marketing.
from a supermarket firm,
de la un supermarket,
and it went like this, it said:
în care se spunea:
at King's Cross opens!!!"
SafeMart la King's Cross!!!”
signing up to that,
să mă fi subscris la asta,
that they appear to think
about a shop opening.
că se deschide un magazin.
to the bottom of the email,
în partea de jos a e-mailului
I got another one that said,
am mai primit unul:
SafeMart la King's Cross!!!”
nu am dat clic suficient de tare.
I haven't clicked hard enough.
you guessed it,
ați ghicit:
at King's Cross opens!!!"
SafeMart la King's Cross!!!”
matter in this world
în această lume
about supermarket chains
despre lanțuri de supermarketuri
a strongly worded email,
un e-mail tăios.
un tip pe nume Dan mi-a scris:
a guy called Dan said,
să mă ajute cu întrebarea ta.”
to help me with your query."
castel gonflabil ...”
excited about the opening!"
„Sunt mega încântat de deschidere!”
the bouncy castle or shall I?"
sau să o fac eu?”
dar nu e nicio festivitate de inaugurare.”
but there is no celebration planned."
'Trei săptămâni până la',
until,' 'Two weeks until' emails?
castle was non-refundable."
castelul gonflabil e nerambursabil.”
de câteva sute de lire, Dan.”
a few hundred quid, Dan."
for anything you have ordered."
pentru ce ați comandat dumneavoastră.”
de cine ce a făcut.
are in this together."
to make sure people take their shoes off?"
că oamenii se descalță?”
with Dan deteriorated somewhat,
s-a cam deteriorat,
pe care l-am primit spunea așa:
your Case Number is ..."
Numărul dvs. de înregistrare e ...”
this is ... -- and I, I ....
All I'm doing is collecting case numbers.
decât să strâng numere de înregistrare.
why there was no bouncy castle."
de ce nu era un castel gonflabil.”
the end of the story,
that anything -- everything --
as getting out of a car,
cum ar fi datul jos din mașină,
dacă găsești jocul potrivit.
Numărul tău de înregistrare e #0000001.]
your Case Number is #0000001.]
it was quite labor-intensive,
era chiar solicitant
auto-replier program.
de răspuns automat la e-mailuri.
it receives an email from SafeMart,
când primește un e-mail de la SafeMart,
numărul de înregistrare e...”
your Case Number is ..."
numărul de înregistrare de fiecare dată.
to up the case number every time.
a number of emails going back and forth.
un schimb continuu de e-mailuri.
sense of satisfaction to know
are just going to be pinging one another
o să se bombardeze unul pe celălalt
I don't think that's bad.
nu cred că e un lucru rău.
by the bureaucracy
copleșiți de birocrație
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