I get tricked so many times. I am talking about spam in my inbox and/or junk box.

You know, I don’t love any spam, but straightforward spam that tries to sell me designer purses and shoes or timeless timepieces of exceptional quality — these don’t really annoy me. That kind of spam doesn’t pretend to be anything but what it is. At least, I assume so — I don’t know for sure because I’ve never opened them. It so happens I have purses and shoes that I’m giving away. I don’t need any more.

Even the spams about home security systems with 24/7 monitoring service & free equipment! and those who want my unwanted jewelry and those who have posh items for my style, even though they don’t know what my style is — all these don’t both me all that much.

Or even ones like this one that is clearly spam:

Charley Hatch Hey Bikkembergs.

There are, however, all-out trickster spams, and they do get to me.

All the messages entitled Hi! that arrive — I can be almost certain that they are spam. And yet, there could be one of these emails from a sincere subscriber. Maybe once out of a hundred times, it is a real message. Of course, I don’t want to miss any message from a Heavenreader, yet I’ve probably done that too.

Then there are the novel emails never entitled anything like anything I’ve ever received before. These are the ones that really bring out the worst in me. Like yesterday morning, there was this subject title in my junk box:

2 GENEALOGIES FOR CHRIST

I wasn’t going to open it, but then, finally, just on the off chance that it was something real, I took a peek. Of course, it turned out to be spam. This particular spam was selling pills.

Do people really go ahead and purchase from these spammers who masquerade as something else? I never would. This is like bait and switch. Frankly, this is the kind of spam — if they were offering me a free ticket to Heaven — I would never ever have anything to do with them because I am unhappy at being tricked.

Of course, life itself has tricked me once or twice, but that’s different. That’s okay. That’s part of the price of the ticket!