Posts tagged “spam”

Referrer Spam?

I’m getting a lot of hits to this blog from Yahoo searches for “www.ebpp.wellsfargo.com/mortgagepay” where the only hit is my entry Wells Fargo Usability Nightmare – why is anyone searching for that exact string? Unless it’s some robot from Wells Fargo themselves trying to create some referrer spam or something? I guess some people could be trying to enter that URL manually into their address bar and type it into their Yahoo search bar by mistake, but how many times can that happen? I see it several times a day and have for a while now, I think.

I think they are spammers, or search engine optimizers or whatever. Nice.

anti-spam measures

I encountered one of those new spam-blocking services from earthlink. The sender’s email is not delivered, but instead placed in email-escrow, meanwhile, they are sent their own message with a link to a website where they can explicitly request that their email be delivered. The receipient gets some sort of request-for-permission from the sender, and if they grant it, the message (and all others) will be delivered.

Many spam messages can’t be properly replied to, so that takes care of a lot of the spam, and then others presumably won’t ask for permission, and of those that are left, well, presumably the recipient won’t grant them permission.

Anyway, this happened to me because I replied to someone. They sent me email. Shouldn’t Eartlink know that their customer made an explicit choice to correspond with me? When all I’m doing is replying, I certainly don’t expect to be challenged. But why should Eartlink care, right? They are protecting their own customers.

Weird.

poped

I got a rather off-color piece of spam today (this is not unusual) that included this line: Young Cherries About To Get Poped !

Nigerian Spam of the Week

FROM:ELVIS MARTINS & ASSOCIATES.
LEGAL PRACTITIONER,
LAGOS STATES,NIGERIA
EMAIL: elvismartins@coolgoose.com

Sir,

I am Barrister Elvis Martins.I represent Mohammed Abacha, son
Of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, who was the former military Head
Of State, Following the release of Mohammed Abacha
The son of late Gen. Abacha who died in power in 1998, by the
Federal Government of Nigeria and the Agreement reached by the
Abacha family and the Federal Government of Nigeria, I write to
Propose to you this urgent operation that will be of mutual
Benefits to both parties involve. The Federal Government of
Nigeria has proposed to the Abacha family to release over one
Billion US Dollars (US$1 Billion) in their possession to the
Government and the government in return will withdraw all the
Charges against them and give them 100 Million US Dollars in as
Compensation.

Hey is not for horses, it’s forbidden

A colleague at Kodak sent out a message with the subject line “Hey fellas!” and so I replied. It bounced back to me, with a message that I had used a “forbidden word” in the subject line. I contacted their postmaster, who replied:
Unfortunately, over 99% of messages that arrive at the gateway with the word “Hey” in the subject line are spam. We’re sorry if this was a problem for the particular message you sent.
In order to protect our employees so that email remains a useful tool,
we sometimes need to filter on seemingly innocuous words.

Now isn’t that a frightening attitude? I mean, don’t false positives fail to “protect” their employees? Their spam fighting system is totally broken, and of course, they don’t see it that way.

Ahhh, corporate IT folks. Lovely.

Future Hero/Heroine

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Dear Stevep,
FUTURE Hero/Heroine of our forthcoming film,

Dhari Films Pvt. Ltd. invites young boys & girls to participate in the Talent-Search for a prestigious big budget HINDI feature film.
The Talent-Search is aimed at enhancing the individual talent with respect to his/her attitudes, perceptions and dilemmas, and harnessing the energy of the acting to create a successful ACTOR/ACTRESS in a healthy atmosphere. The focus is on strengthening one’s core, the firmness of one’s ability and the blossoming of one’s potential. The course-programmed (after the selection) stimulates commitment to one’s harmony and happiness that vexing problems though not solve, often dissolve under the guidance of Experts.
This talent-search is tailored exclusively for young talents. This search will not only give you the break to realize your dreams come true, but will help you boosting your positive attitudes and release an effusion of creativity and a deep sense of rejoicing within both yourself and your ability as an actor or actress, resulting in a favorable change in your work culture throughout your acting-career.
The Minimum Requirements:
1.Minimum Age Should be 18, but not more than 25 years.
2.Should speak HINDI.
3.Should know dance.
4.Should have sense of at least imitating.
& above all judge yourself that you can be HERO/ HEROINE or not.

popfile

I’ve just installed POPFile which may begin to eliminate my ridiculous spam load. I’ve been getting a lot, as everyone has. It has seemed to have leaped in frequency since the start of the War, for some reason.

POPFile is an automatic mail classification tool. Once properly set up and trained, it will work in the background of your computer, scanning mail as it arrives and filing it however you wish. You can give it a simple job, like separating out junk e-mail, or a complicated one – like filing mail into a dozen folders. Think of it as a personal assistant for your inbox.

tgiMonday?

Dear Friend

If this describes you …
1. You have a positive mental attitude
2. You are focused on being the best you can be
3. You fly with the eagles and avoid the turkeys
4. You hate the negative Ôø?BSÔø? thatÔø?s sprouted on TV and in newspapers
5. You are totally focused on being the best you can be

Then tgiMondays is definitely for you.

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green coffee beans spam

This is a hysterically strange spam:

From: CRChickadee@Yahoo.com
To: steve@
Subject: Wanted wholesale purchase of green coffee beans

Hello, I did a search in Google, for “coffee bean distributors”, and your site and e-mail was presented. I am looking to purchase wholesale, green coffee beans. If this e-mail address for you is correct for the search/list and you selll wholesale, green coffee beans, would you please advise me of your wholesale, bulk pricinging? If the Google search and list of your site was incorrect for my request, please disregard this request for information to you. Sincerely, M. Denver

Series

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