but we're trash, you and me...
I've been getting the most absurd spam.
I know that pretty much everyone gets spam, so I don't think this odd in itself. It doesn't much worry me either: after all, Yahoo is catching it and safely sending it into my spam folder. It's just that it bemuses me. I quite frequently check my spam folder to make sure that nothing has been sent in there by mistake (it still sweeps up the odd comment), and there it is. It keeps on coming. I get about one or two of these ridiculous emails every day.
As is the way of these things, I have absolutely no idea where this spam comes from. I don't know how they got my email address, and I don't know how to make it stop. But that's okay. It doesn't annoy me much, and it seems basically harmless. Besides, I don't even bother to open them up. Even so, every time I'm looking in my spam folder and I see that another batch has arrived, I can't help but wonder what its senders can possibly hope to achieve.
The thing is, this spam is utterly hopeless. Each email has a ridiculous subject header, and each email purports to come from people with the most obviously made-up names I have ever seen.
Here are some examples:
"cutlet affirmatively" from Natalia Krueger
"exploratory apprentice" from Ophelia Kuhn
"pooch toss-up" from Gwendolyn Holland
"ghostwriter astray" from Mima Camacho
"tidal wave flip" from Cecily Simmons
"gelatin graduate" from Bab Norwood
.... you get the general idea.
The emails themselves seems to be made up of a grid of images that forms a picture of a nonsense stock recommendation. There are no embedded links or code or anything like that (although possibly there might be some and they just don't work on my mac).
I just don't get it.
The only thing that I can think that they are trying to do is to get people to email the "unsubscribe" address, thus flagging that they are an active account. To what end, I have no idea. To send more spam?
In its own way, it's quite amusing, but it baffles me. What's the point?
Answers on a postcard....
----
Shuffleathon update:
I'm going to keep updating this table and moving it around, I think, so we all know where we are. As you'll see, we've had a few early despatchers already. Good for you! Can you all let me know when you send / receive your CD so I can keep this up to date? If you get your review up, it would also be good if you can send me a link, and I'll add it on to the table.
[large and unwieldy table removed]
I know that pretty much everyone gets spam, so I don't think this odd in itself. It doesn't much worry me either: after all, Yahoo is catching it and safely sending it into my spam folder. It's just that it bemuses me. I quite frequently check my spam folder to make sure that nothing has been sent in there by mistake (it still sweeps up the odd comment), and there it is. It keeps on coming. I get about one or two of these ridiculous emails every day.
As is the way of these things, I have absolutely no idea where this spam comes from. I don't know how they got my email address, and I don't know how to make it stop. But that's okay. It doesn't annoy me much, and it seems basically harmless. Besides, I don't even bother to open them up. Even so, every time I'm looking in my spam folder and I see that another batch has arrived, I can't help but wonder what its senders can possibly hope to achieve.
The thing is, this spam is utterly hopeless. Each email has a ridiculous subject header, and each email purports to come from people with the most obviously made-up names I have ever seen.
Here are some examples:
"cutlet affirmatively" from Natalia Krueger
"exploratory apprentice" from Ophelia Kuhn
"pooch toss-up" from Gwendolyn Holland
"ghostwriter astray" from Mima Camacho
"tidal wave flip" from Cecily Simmons
"gelatin graduate" from Bab Norwood
.... you get the general idea.
The emails themselves seems to be made up of a grid of images that forms a picture of a nonsense stock recommendation. There are no embedded links or code or anything like that (although possibly there might be some and they just don't work on my mac).
I just don't get it.
The only thing that I can think that they are trying to do is to get people to email the "unsubscribe" address, thus flagging that they are an active account. To what end, I have no idea. To send more spam?
In its own way, it's quite amusing, but it baffles me. What's the point?
Answers on a postcard....
----
Shuffleathon update:
I'm going to keep updating this table and moving it around, I think, so we all know where we are. As you'll see, we've had a few early despatchers already. Good for you! Can you all let me know when you send / receive your CD so I can keep this up to date? If you get your review up, it would also be good if you can send me a link, and I'll add it on to the table.
[large and unwieldy table removed]
posted by swisslet @ 20:12
5 Comments:
At 10:45 pm,
Stef said…
You're a Mac user? That explains a lot... ;-) Spam is largely bollocks though and you've got to wonder why people click those links.
By the way, I'm sure people can harvest your email address from your blogger page. I get about 1 spam email a month and you notice my email ain't on my profile. Get a form on your blog, it aint' rocket science and they can't harvest the backend of an ASP/PHP form.
My Shuffalathon CDs will be in the post in the morning, they're in their addressed jiffy bags and ready to go to the post office when I head to the opticians in the morning.
At 11:22 pm,
bytheseashore said…
You're right about spammers trying to get you to 'unsubscribe' to confirm that your address is active. I've had quite a few emails in my gmail account with blank subjects and no content, apparently from 'no sender' which I think are sent just to see which emails bounce and which don't, the presumption being that those that don't bounce have been sent to active accounts. I don't get any of those in my hotmail account but I do get some like the ones that you've mentioned. I'd guess that shows some of the difference between their respective spam filters.
The reason for sending seemingly pointless emails is that money changes hands for lists of active accounts. They can be harvested from any website that uses 'mailto:' HTML. Also, if you've ever left an email address in a website's guest book it's likely to be harvested at some point. Some spammers use software that creates untold numbers of email addresses ranging from 'aaaaa@hotmail.com' to 'zzzzz@hotmail.com', for example.
All of which is a bit geeky. So, crap game tonight or what?
At 10:02 am,
Stef said…
I've posted my shuffleathon CD by the way.
At 10:58 am,
Statue John said…
Received loud and clear this morning! Very exciting...
Thank you...
SJ
At 10:08 pm,
Michael said…
My shuffleathon CD has been dropped off at the post office as of about an hour ago.
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