Spammers are idiots

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

... or is it just me? I received the following:

From: "service@paypal.com" <service@paypal.com>
Reply-To: "service@paypal.com" <service@paypal.com>
Subject: [SPAM] PayPal account notification - paul@xxx.com

Dear paul@xxx.com,

As part of our se curity measures, we re gularly sc reen a ctivity in the
P ayPal s ystem. Dur ing a re cent screen ing, we notic ed an issu e regard ing
your a ccount.

Case ID N umber: PP5039

For your protectio n, we have l imited acces s to your acc ount unt il
ad ditional secur ity measu res can be compl eted. We ap ologize for any
inconve nience this may cause.
Don't they think that the filter-avoiding breaks in the words are going to make me suspicious?

~~ Paul

[tkingdoll]

Yes, but the one little old lady that falls for it is worth it.

[Ririon]

You shouldn't leave your REAL email on a public website like this. It generates more spam... :p

[Fuzake]

Well, yeah. But I have two. One I hardly ever use so I use it for things like joining online game sites, and the other one for actual email. And even people you know will spam you, so there's really no way to get around it. Like this email I received from a certain Reo 15x:

SPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAM....

and so on. The guy clearly has too much free time. Either that or he just really hates me. Probably the first. You know what you should do if someone you know spams you? Copy-paste their email and send it right back, but copy it three times! That's what I did.

[Ririon]

It was a joke. xxx-dot-com is a real domain. Not a domain respectable people like mr. Anagnostopoulos usually would like to be associated with, though. :)

And if you know an actual spammer, call the cops.

[Meffy]

The spam that bothers me most is in forums, not email. My favorite thing to post in spammed threads:
http://www.freewebtown.com/meffy/stuffs/spams_my_hunch_2.jpg

My second favorite thing to post in spammed threads:
http://www.freewebtown.com/meffy/stuffs/ico_spam_can.gif

[Donn]

I just don't get spamming. I mean, who would respond to a random email offering cheap software or viagra?

"Oh look! Cheap Viagra. Let me email this total stranger and include my credit card details! O goody goody gum-drops!"

It's too odd for me to think that happens. Is there something else going on? What can they possibly gain from the tonnes of emails they send out. My inbox filter cannot keep up with all the cr*p.

[Donn]

Oh yeah - recently I have been getting a new variant on the old filter-dodger. One is a block of text that has nothing to do with typical spam. It reads more like a poem, sometimes angsty. After that there is an attached image, which is actually the offer for software or viagra etc.
So now I can't filter out keywords because I'll lose all my emails! Even the subjects are more 'normal', like "Interesting News" and so on.

Arrrgh :mad:

[Segnosaur]

Well, there IS one benefit to spam...

It has lead to the creation of a web site called 'spam mimic'. This web site lets you type in small phrases which get coded into spam. You can then send the spam to someone, they can decode it and read the message.

Kind of a 'secret decoder ring'.

https://www.spammimic.com/

[Meffy]

I use the open source software Mozilla Thunderbird for email. I let it know which messages are spam, and it adapts pretty well. It's rare that it misses either way, and good messages almost never get flagged as spam.

http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

As to why the spammers bother... it's because however unlikely it is that someone will respond, a few idiots do, and spamming is so cheap (unless the spammers get nailed!) that they figure they might as well broadcast their garbage as widely as possible. Only prosecution and heavy penalties will slow the problem. IMO nothing can end it entirely, unless it might be changing market realities in the future.

[Vitnir]

Google mail is also pretty good at auto-filtering, I'm not sure if it learns what I think is spam if I click "Report spam".

Lovely spam

[Rat]

The ones I'm seeing more frequently now are those offering stock tips. I assume that the plan is for enough people to take it seriously (possibly those who really do sign up for stock tips newsletters) to affect the price.

Cheers,
Rat.

[Dog Boots]

Wouldn't it be in the spammers' own interest to try to cause as little annoyance to and deathwishes from the general public as possible?

I get a lot of email spam, and the vast majority is the same over and over again - each day, clearly from the same "company".

Why don't they program their system to say: "Now we've sent this particular mail to this guy 100 times, yet we haven't heard from him. That can only mean one of two things:

A: He's mentally challenged and in a home - doesn't have a credit card.
or
B: He's knows what's going on, and he fantasizes each day, about elaborate ways to kill us if he ever meets us. He's not going to give us anything.

....might as well stop sending him this message." ?

[kevin]

spammer's live on very small returns. The goal is to send out millions of e-mails at very low cost. a .1% return rate on 1,000,000 e-mails is 1,000 customers that cost less than a penny a customer. Add-in what is most likely a bogus product with high profit margin and you're looking at serious money.

Look at how many people buy homeopathic crap. You really don't think there are 1000 people that will buy oregeno to make their wee-wee bigger?

[kevin]

Why don't they program their system to say: "Now we've sent this particular mail to this guy 100 times, yet we haven't heard from him.

Generally most spam e-mail today originates from bot nets. These are networks of thousands of computers taken over by a virus/worm/malware. The virus downloads a list of e-mail addresses and a set of e-mail messages from a central computer. They then send those messages to each person on the mail list.

Generally the bot net only sends out one of each message to each e-mail address but the spammer may hire multple bot nets, and since mail lists are bought and sold you're probably on several lists. Additionally the bot net may try small variations in message headers in an attempt to get the message through.

[Meffy]

Latest trend on one of my accounts: Spammed job offers, almost all for surgeon positions. I'm not a surgeon. I don't even play one on television.

[kevin]

Latest trend on one of my accounts: Spammed job offers, almost all for surgeon positions. I'm not a surgeon. I don't even play one on television.

i do NOT want to go to a surgeon that got their job through a spam offering.

[BPSCG]

i do NOT want to go to a surgeon that got their job through a spam offering.The National Lampoon had a piece once looking at the world through the paranoid's eyes. Regarding your doctor: Ask yourself if he graduated from medical school with A's or with C's. Or did he get straight A's by cheating? A good rule of thumb is, if your doctor was any good, he'd be a specialist. Cartoon underneath showed a beady-eyed doctor leering at his shapely female patient: "Strip!"

[Ohmer]

Oh yeah - recently I have been getting a new variant on the old filter-dodger. One is a block of text that has nothing to do with typical spam. It reads more like a poem, sometimes angsty. After that there is an attached image, which is actually the offer for software or viagra etc.
So now I can't filter out keywords because I'll lose all my emails! Even the subjects are more 'normal', like "Interesting News" and so on.

Arrrgh :mad:

Some spammers will even randomize a lot of the pixels in the image. This results in image files that are very different digitally, but they all look the same visually. This makes it very difficult to identify and filter the images.

The war continues.

[Meffy]

The random-seeming phrase spam titles are often good for a surreal laugh. Haven't been seeing as many of those lately. *knocks on wooden head*

[Rat]

The random-seeming phrase spam titles are often good for a surreal laugh. Haven't been seeing as many of those lately. *knocks on wooden head*
"spastic ineptitude" the best I've seen recently.

As I sort of get a copy of all mail coming into the office, I see a huge HUGE amount of these.

[Meffy]

Whoa, I guess so! I don't have many these days, so miss some of the trends. Just got a couple titled "did at ?" and "Made slump it asparagus"... something about bamboo steamers, or maybe cheap v1@gr@... *9_9*

[kevin]

The random-seeming phrase spam titles are often good for a surreal laugh. Haven't been seeing as many of those lately. *knocks on wooden head*

hasn't updated in a while, but pretty entertaining:
http://www.spamusement.com/

[tom m.]

The spam that bothers me most is in forums, not email. My favorite thing to post in spammed threads:
http://www.freewebtown.com/meffy/stuffs/spams_my_hunch_2.jpg

My second favorite thing to post in spammed threads:
http://www.freewebtown.com/meffy/stuffs/ico_spam_can.gif


Meffy - I love the pic!

[Blue Mountain]

Look at how many people buy homeopathic crap. You really don't think there are 1000 people that will buy oregeno to make their wee-wee bigger?

It won't? Ah ****!

Uh, anyone want some oregano? I have 15 kilos of it sitting on boxes at my place.

[Meffy]

@Kevin: Heh, nice and surreal... thanks!

@tom m.: Except the "recipe" in the corner it's an authentic old Spam advert. :-) I'm rather fond of corny 1950s advertising art.

[maniak713]

I just don't get spamming. I mean, who would respond to a random email offering cheap software or viagra?


Umm... the guys that can't get it up? ;-)

Now seriously, read some about response rates, that is a percentage of people that recaive advertising and act on it. Spam has response rates in the fractions of percent, but since it's being sent by the million, it still makes few hudreds sales...

And since sending emails is almost free, throwing **** in million inboxes to sell 100 fake viagra pills is still somewhat profitable.

So these 100 idiots that buy from spammers make their business live. Unfortunately, idiots and morons are in abundant supply all over the world :-(

[Lamuella]

I love the website http://www.spamusement.com

very funny stuff

[zakur]

The random-seeming phrase spam titles are often good for a surreal laugh. Haven't been seeing as many of those lately. *knocks on wooden head*Here are few recent ones from my spam filter:

clitoris polo
lukewarm logistical
backstroke reader
Scandinavia winning
ninth nonsensical
deter uppercase
mango scene
gunnysack frilly

I particularly enjoy it when two seemingly unrelated spam subject lines converge for a laugh. Like:

Date Christian Singles in Your Area
Be a Champion in the Bedroom!

[Rat]

kayak lightly
anytime greenhouse
rector indescribably
just trade-off
bottle second-class
vivacity ear
satisfy heated & lustful moments
instigate bowling
bolt seventieth
crying intermittently
rile deflation
antiquity freight train
overpass leverage
Jane Doe backgammon
candidacy space shuttle
caretaker linens
humidity transpire
girdle grueling
space shuttle illustrate
unveil midway
senatorial gel
toothache fireproof
vague receptionist
feverish incomplete
strikingly classical
extremist vicinity
spat sleepily
promotional squarely
concentric washcloth
drive-by surrounding
holistic caution
washed-up brine
decent obliterate
coroner unjustified
stickler unhappily
deteriorate autonomy
attire nose
glamorize aggrieved
ironing spokeswoman
B.S. profit margin
grate farmer
houseboat crybaby
customize rapture
bird irresistible
downsize informality
relic harpsichord
glory social climber
snapshot taxidermy
fitting vainly
shiver third-rate
herbivore miffed
breathless sportswear
exultant avenge
utility galvanize
jack redeem
athletic figuratively
through ideological
conclude flustered
off-white committee
verbal clergy
caseworker cremation
wren Confederacy
spontaneously companionship
landlocked forestry
witchcraft hanging
adrift recipient
typify ponder
heroin red-hot
crisscross shrapnel
glycerin oddity
adrift recipient
glycerin oddity
cartilage noisily
benevolence rationale
pert abhor
ardent tadpole
flashy alleged
sorrow revolve
proscribe flip-flop
gadget adherence
feet gunfire
professed vulgar
deletion simper
torso domestic
chainsaw centralize
foolhardy fanny
vendor mackerel
no-nonsense bill
sonic boom ha
peacock heron
shutdown mystifying
index finger landfill
battleground transistor
pale broomrape
wink academic
self-important destitute
orgy shading
mismanage malnutrition
gaily grounding
disobey verdict
total artistry
prompting leper
invade humanism
wrapper foul
arrogant slip-up
snooty unsightly
remarkable noble
grime write-off
unprovoked machinery
uncomfortable idiosyncratic
evolution someway
snub cottonwood
wrapper foul
apartment building
clump dilation
evidently wobble
pumpernickel hoops
doughnut memorandum
chivalrous deferential
chaos gigantic
misnomer designation
climax harlot
chopsticks tumultuous
fraught under
bakery incidence
washing bozo
silly unfair
upbringing fumble
twin alley
rocking horse historical
youngster privatize
tobacco beauty parlor
bookkeeper elated
expect eldest
levitate unassuming
integrate human being
mistrial infancy
consul fluids
tighten million
obedience stamina
flog crash landing
darken sedentary
expiration date batter
ogre mathematician
tongue ogle
derivation cataract
morning sickness tribulation
ancestral insecurity
irresistible fulfilling
anyway rehabilitate
inwards inexplicable
eloquently hubcap
stuff overly
strife asphalt
bullfighting tiara
sulfur hopeless
turf juxtapose
question mark personally
stomp builder
salient litterbug
individual lightweight
emit pinstripe
slimy inexcusable
doughnut aboriginal
commonplace radiotherapy

Cheers,
Rat.

[kittykatkarma]

The ones that I get a chuckle out of contain no text, only a scanned replica of the pitch. Usually the image file, a GIF, appears to have been scanned in haste and the bottom three rows are smeared beyond readability. However, the brilliant person behind the spam scheme doesn't seem to mind that I won't be able to read it anyway!

Most likely the image is to conceal a pixel tag or some other sort of browser bot.

[Kelly]

Yesterday I received one that claimed it was from "Citybank:, but yet the subject line referenced "Citibank".

DUH!

[ZirconBlue]

clitoris polo

That sounds fun!



ETA: I wonder if that is played while riding whore-back?

[varwoche]

This seems like an appropiate thread to post this weird bit of spam that just landed in my inbox:
Gee, to think Ive ever spoken to five thousand people! She began sobbing, which was Elmers cue to jump up and have awonderful idea.

We have come here at a greatsacrifice, and we are here only to help you. He really knows something; he isnt asplendid cast-iron statue of ignorance like you or me.

He hadnot known people who wore evening frocks. Why, Elmer would demand, hadnt they provided enough dressing-roomsin the tabernacle? The professional Christiansbesieged the tent night and day.

The hoot of a wandering owl; then thekind air, the whispering air, crept round them. When he whispered, Where is your room, sweet?

For a moment, at the station, he thought that she had not come tomeet him. And I must be free for the serviceof Our Lord. He was recalling that she was the aristocrat, the more formidablehere in the company of F.
We have come here at a greatsacrifice, and we are here only to help you.
Heread Ella Wheeler Wilcox, James Whitcomb Riley, and Thomas Moore.
No, Elmer could not consider the converts human. And youre going to stop being poorElmer Gantry of Paris, Kansas. Theyve always cared for me since I was a tiny baby, Sharonwhispered. He had not realized that in the buggy they hadclimbed so high.

The crew waited for him as campers fora mosquito.

Wouldyou like to come down there with me, just us two, for a fortnightin October? :confused:

[bigred]

since sending emails is almost free, throwing **** in million inboxes to sell 100 fake viagra pills is still somewhat profitable.:-See I don't get this. They still have to pay someone to bother to send all this crap out, right? Even at min. wage, given the exceedingly small success rate, I'm amazed it isn't a net loss.

Unfortunately, idiots and morons are in abundant supply all over the world :-( Truer words were never spoken. And the % is growing. :boxedin:

You would think anyone seriously interested in viagra (or whatever) would just google it or some such, not grab some cryptic, royal painintheass email that is hard to read and harder to follow to go to another site (which brings up 100 pop-ups, is hard to follow, etc etc etc).

[kevin]

See I don't get this. They still have to pay someone to bother to send all this crap out, right? Even at min. wage, given the exceedingly small success rate, I'm amazed it isn't a net loss.

To send the crappiest of spam these days you hire a person with a botnet. They setup the master with one copy of the e-mail and it will send it to the millions of people in the e-mail lists it has. Very little people work involved. And the botnet is made up of virus infected machines they didn't pay for, so no money involved there either.

Supposedly spam has a 1% sale rate. Which is way higher than I would've expected.

[Foolmewunz]

To send the crappiest of spam these days you hire a person with a botnet. They setup the master with one copy of the e-mail and it will send it to the millions of people in the e-mail lists it has. Very little people work involved. And the botnet is made up of virus infected machines they didn't pay for, so no money involved there either.

Supposedly spam has a 1% sale rate. Which is way higher than I would've expected.

The 1% of a million posts is a pretty good return, especially if you work the botnet at very low costs. The OP, however, refers to phishing, a far more evil/criminal practice. I can't believe that anyone would react to either, but they do. I know a lady who clicked on the link to update her security information at Citibank, and she doesn't have a Citibank account! :eek:

[SkepticScott]

The latest spam I received was from one lame spammer. The entire message was in the subject line. One extremely long subject line, with HTML codes.

[bigred]

To send the crappiest of spam these days you hire a person with a botnet. They setup the master with one copy of the e-mail and it will send it to the millions of people in the e-mail lists it has. Very little people work involved. And the botnet is made up of virus infected machines they didn't pay for, so no money involved there either.

Supposedly spam has a 1% sale rate. Which is way higher than I would've expected.
Thx for the info.

What really ticks me off is the "floating email address" BS. ie you can't simply respond and tell them to #### off.