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Spam magnet

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:47 / 29.01.03

Until about three weeks ago, I prided myself on receiving very little in the way of spam emails. Suddenly this has all changed- my inbox is full of bollocks.

Question: given that I've not subscribed to any newsgroups, boards, or given my email address to ANYTHING in months, and haven't bought anything online... AND I don't have any software that's just run past its subscription deadline or anything... is this a net-wide thing or does Spam-God just have it in for me personally? I've been reading in the papers that the last 6 months or so have seen an exponential increase in the amount of junk, but this seems a little too sudden.

Obviously it's not that big a deal- I'll just change some settings or what-have-you... I'm just curious.

aus

12:54 / 29.01.03

It's not just the last 6 months that have seen an exponential increase in the amount of spam. It's been increasing like that for years. I'm not sure whether this increase could be describe by an exponential function, but that's where I'd start if I were trying to establish a mathematical description. I'm sure spamming software is easier to build than spam-blocking software, so the spammers are always a step ahead.

Unsolicited faxes are also a problem. Not many people realize that this is illegal in the USA.

w1rebaby

19:17 / 29.01.03

It could just have taken a while for your email to have worked its way round to a spam list, from an occasion when you did give it out. Once you're on one it gets distributed widely to any spammer who wants to buy it, but it's not necessarily instant to get on it.

Helmschmied

19:28 / 29.01.03

You know...I used to laugh at people with a daily inbox full of spam. I had a my yahoo email account for two years with literally NO spam. Not one piece....seriously. Starting about two months ago, I now get 4-6 spam emails a DAY. Oh well.

Baz Auckland

19:34 / 29.01.03

http://astalavista.box.sk

is a good spot to get some anti-spam programs and whatnot. One of my Barry Auckland accounts averages about 300 spams a week now... thankfully it's the one I only use to get American Family Association mailings.

Tezcatlipoca

19:58 / 29.01.03

I've used Postmaster for about three years. With no spam. Ever.

William Sack

20:56 / 29.01.03

So Tez, you send more than you receive?

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:57 / 29.01.03

Mailwasher now supports Hotmail, y'know...

Linus Dunce

17:51 / 30.01.03

Spammers reportedly pick up addresses from web pages, bulletin boards, etc., so maybe that's where they got it.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

19:45 / 30.01.03

Hmm. I too seem to be getting more spam than I used to; also mails from people called z13UmY9t10 who think I'm actually dumb enough to open that attached file. I figured it was just down to the fact that my email addy appears on my weblog, although being a chronic paranoiac I can't help wondering if some kind soul has bunged my address out to a few porn merchants.

Anti-Leech Online reckon they can fox spambots. It's free to sign up.

Linus Dunce

20:15 / 30.01.03

There's also a javascript trick you can get from A List Apart. Don't know how effective it is or how long for, but it defeats Anti-Leech's test.

8===>Q: alyn

13:35 / 24.03.03

Anybody else start getting weird spam subjects like "Your place in our new world" and "Your information is exposed?" I mean, I assume it's the same old porn, but shee-it.

Bear

13:57 / 24.03.03

It's only actually spam when you don't use the services right? Try using all the mail you get that's what I've been doing, I now have the biggest breasts you could imagine although I've lost all my money to a Nigerian presidents wife but you know who needs money when you've a 4ft penis?

illmatic

14:10 / 24.03.03

All the odd information subjects are attempts by the spammers to beat all the new filters being built. I think the only reason people are getting more of it in the last 6 months is because it seems to be growing as an industry.

pomegranate

18:29 / 24.03.03

ROFLMFAO @ Bear

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

18:45 / 24.03.03

I wasn't getting any spam for the longest time, either, but it went nuts after I'd had my mailbox for about a year. I think that's how long it takes for the marketers to get their hands on it, or their little webspiders to dig into the deep, dark recesses of the web I tend to stick to.

The sad thing is that the messages are now so poorly done, I can't do a Mystery Science Theater 3000 to them, like I could in the good old days of literate and almost believeable spam. Ah, the good old days.

Tryphena Absent

21:43 / 24.03.03

I got this today but am way too scared to look at the site...
Arianna- got to be porn- probably not as bad as www.nina.com though.

Ciao,

il mio nome è Arianna, 22enne nata a Napoli.

Vivo e lavoro a Milano.
Sono una massaggiatrice professionista e come puoi ben vedere
dalle foto pubblicate sul sito web:
http://66.240.178.80/
la mia specialità sono i massaggio con le mani.
Ti assicuro che sono unica nel mio genere e puoi constatarlo direttamente
scaricando e guardando il mio video.

Viene a trovarmi
Arianna

The Strobe

22:21 / 24.03.03

I had a hysterical one which, to cut a long story short, involved a girl and a horse's cock. But the WAY it was written was so funny - especially the line "the video even has SOUND!". I've lost it now, but can remember it pretty verbatim if anyone wants further expansion. It is hysterical.

And in tiny letters, at the bottom of the email, after the big link to the video, the words

click here to stop.

Brilliant. ("No shit! She actually sucks a 23" horse cock!")

rizla mission

10:36 / 25.03.03

Until about three weeks ago, I prided myself on receiving very little in the way of spam emails. Suddenly this has all changed- my inbox is full of bollocks.

Exactly the same thing's started happening to my email in the last month or so, after years with barely any spam.

At least those nice people at Yahoo have provided me with the power to automatically derail and delete it before it gets in my way.

40%

08:39 / 29.03.04

I'm confused. I've been going through the porn messages in my hotmail junk mail folder, and blocking the various addresses. Some of them are from email addresses using my name. Do they have some program that automatically creates new email accounts specifically for the purpose of spamming you?

Others are supposedly from websites that are clearly unrelated. I got one from toyota.com, and yes that site does belong to the car company. Anyone know how they're doing this?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:43 / 29.03.04

Now my spam torrent (for want of a less rude-sounding phrase) has dried up completely.

And, I have to say...

I hate to say...

but I must

and WILL say...

I'm missing it a little bit.

Jack Vincennes

11:29 / 29.03.04

I got one from toyota.com, and yes that site does belong to the car company. Anyone know how they're doing this?

I'm not sure how it's done, but it happens to me as well - almost half of the spam to my university account claims to be from the mailing list of one of the courses I do.

Most of it is "Earn Your Diploma The Easy Way" spam too ("Hi, I'm Erin! I never had time for classes but..."), which stopped being funny a long time ago...

w1rebaby

12:52 / 29.03.04

It's trivially easy to spoof the "From" address in email. All it is is the address that the sender is telling you you should reply to. Sending and receiving email are two separate things - you don't actually send mail "from an account" as such, it just feels like that when you're using an email program.

trixr4kids

14:10 / 29.03.04

Stoat....maybe someone else registered your name(email) with some dodgy sites...quite a common "jape" in my office...

Bastard Tweed

08:45 / 30.03.04

I was going to leave a reply that was just "WANTBIGGRPENIS???ADD3-4INCHS!!!CLIKHERE!!!" but that would have been cheap of me and thoroughly wrong.

40%

08:47 / 30.03.04

...especially if you didn't actually provide the link...

Abigail Blue

12:31 / 30.03.04

I've had my hotmail account for about five years, and never received spam until the last few weeks. The weird thing is that I'm only receiving spam from addresses at hotmail and yahoo. I assume that the mighty MSN Spam Bot will take care of it for me in the not-too-distant future.

I suspect that my lack of spam is, in great part, due to the fact that I use my husband's e-mail address whenever I sign up for anything online (Mwa ha ha), and he gets an average of 100 spam messages a day. Tee hee.

Eloi Tsabaoth

12:41 / 30.03.04

Only had spam for a few weeks?
Actually Abigail, could you help me with something?
I am Prince Johnson Garuba (Jnr.) eldest son to Dr. William C. Garuba, the former financial controller of the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F)....

Abigail Blue

12:58 / 30.03.04

If you send me an e-mail in broken English, we may just be able to come to an arrangement...

Baz Auckland

14:38 / 30.03.04

I'm getting close to 100 a day now, but since the majority of it is addressed to 'myemail@geocities.com' it's all geocities's damn fault. Bastards.

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