Sunday, September 09, 2007

Are Mormon missionaries door-to-door spam?

Is a visit by the Mormon missionaries a little bit like getting a spam email? Some of those emails have very interesting and catchy headlines, don’t they? Like: “Important message re your business proposal.”

Now, you are expecting an email about a business proposal, so with excitement you open the email… only to find that it is not even selling you something vaguely helpful like a wonderful new Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scheme (ha!) but something that is totally bogus such as how to enhance your bodily parts, a hot stock tip or a genuine fake watch.

In disgust you delete the email. Hoping that it hasn’t inserted a Trojan in your computer, designed to take over your computer and fill it with programmes that you certainly do not want it to be running.

There is a knock at the door. “Hi. We have a wonderful message to share. Would you like us to share it with you?” Yes. You got it! It is the religious equivalent of spam, a visit by the Mormon missionaries!

The trouble is that with some people (like my parents who were tracted by the Mormon missionaries) they put a mental Trojan into their mind and can take over their thought processes. And fill it with programmes that you certainly do not want it to be running.

3 comments:

Travis Whitney said...

I hadn't thought of it that way... I guess I must be adware since I was a missionary. Wait just a minute while I run Spybot Search and Destroy on my mind... done. 17,583 potential threats found... all quarantined.

/paranoidfr33k

Travis Whitney said...

I hadn't thought of it that way before. I guess I'm adware since I was a missionary once. Wait just a minute while I run Spybot Search and Destroy on my mind... done. 17,385 potential threats found. Quarantine finished.

/paranoidfr33k

Diane Lowe said...

Wow.

That is an interesting parallel you have there.

I find dealing with Mormon missionaries is such a delicate thing, being an exMo. On one hand I don't want to be rude to them, because I don't want to give them a bad experience dealing with exMos, but I also want them to know that it's unacceptable for them to share their "wonderful message" with me.

When I was in Utah a couple weeks ago my boyfriend's cousin was still in "missionary" mode. I ended up not giving him a piece of my mind because I didn't think it would do him any good, and just let him babble.