Wow. Email addresses really do stay on spam lists forever. The postmaster account just picked up a non-delivery report for a message sent to a server that’s been offline for 7 years!
Category: Spam
Dilemma: Spam or Not?
I hate receiving an email ad from a company that I recognize when I can’t remember for certain whether I signed up for email or not. Did they just reactivate an old list that I’d forgotten, or have they been acting shady, picking up email addresses but not permission?
If it’s an old, forgotten list that I really did sign up for, I should just unsubscribe and have done with it. Reporting them as spam would be irresponsible and would actually make spam filters less reliable.
On the other hand, if they harvested or bought my email address, I should report it as spam…and I shouldn’t trust the unsubscribe link.
Honest Comment Spammer
While cleanning out the comment spam folder on Speed Force, I found this gem:
Hi this is a attempt to get noticed on the world wide web and hopefully spread the word about our services. It would be kind of you if you allow me to share my online marketing one the site. The company name is [REDACTED]. Thanks
I suppose you’ve got to give them points for honesty.
Hello, New Friend!
Whenever I see spam that starts out with a subject or greeting like “Hey, friend,” I think of Fluffmodeus from the webcomic Something Positive:
TV Tropes describes the grotesque cute character as being “like an ’80s cartoon character who Care-Bear-Stared a little too long into the abyss…” Rippy declared him to be “the most annoying thing that’s ever existed.” Hmm, maybe he’s a spammer when he’s not haunting Kharisma? 😀
- First appearance in Life With Rippy: New Friend
- First appearance in S*P itself: The Commonwealth vs. Kharisma Valetti
Oh, and the archives…definitely not work-safe.
Call Your Mark a Sucker
My jaw just dropped at this advance fee fraud scam that showed up in the spamtraps this week. The whole thing is about how the reason you haven’t gotten your funds is because you’ve been dealing with fraudsters who have been impersonating Nigerian diplomats, police, etc., and how could you possibly be so naive?…oh, and if you’ll send me your personal information and bank details, I’ll make sure the real police clear things up so you can get your payment.
Seriously. Does this technique actually work?
Actual text of the email below the cut:
Spam template
I love seeing it when spam software doesn’t quite work. Sometimes it’s just schadenfreude, and sometimes it’s interesting to see how the templates are structured.
Here’s one that showed up in a comment spam on Speed Force:
{Hi|Hello|Hey there|Thanks}, {very|really|truly|genuinely} {cool|nice|good|interesting} {post|article|stuff}. Such {insighful|entertaining} writing is rare these days. I’ll {surely|certainly} be looking in on {this|your} {blog|site} again {soon|in the nea
It’s cut off because they managed to plug it in as the commenter name instead of the comment itself (oops!)
I haven’t decided whether to call this “flattery spam,” or “kiss-ass spam,” but my general reaction when I see these (and I’ve seen a lot of them) is, “Nice try.”
Silly Spam: Random!
In cleaning out the spamtraps, I found several variations of a message with just FWD as the subject. Inside: an image (not sure what of, since I’m using a text-only program to read them), a link, and then the following:
some random words here. some random words here. some random words here. some random words here. some random words here. some random words here.
…and so forth, repeated a total of 308 times.
I actually burst out laughing!
I think this qualifies as the most pathetic word salad/Bayes poison ever.