CYBERSPACE — ”They” say that crime doesn’t pay. Some days it seems like “they” lie.According to CipherTrust, manufacturer of spam and viral protection devices for networks, spam related to pornography is 280 times more effective than the second most successful product promoted via spam: pharmacy drugs.

Pulling up in third is Rolex watch spam, which earns a 0.0075 click-thru rating, the company’s analysts report.

Given how ghastly most porn looks, many may wonder why anyone would touch it. Francis deSouza, a vice president at antiviral experts, Symantec, says that “Successful spam is about impulse purchases.”

As deSouza explains it, “Things like home mortgages have a lower success rate than things you’d buy on impulse. Things like Viagra, porn.”

Paul Q. Judge, chief technical officer at Ciphertrust sees nothing unexpected about this hierarchy. “If you look at some of the oldest and most successful forms of business on earth, they revolve around sex,” he observes.

No word yet on how well Rolex watch spam masquerading as pharmaceutical porn works.