Category: Spam
Most Hated Spam? Survey Says…”Business Relationship” Spam!
Quick, what is the most hated form of spam? “Oh, that’s easy,” you say, “that has to be malicious, infectious spam. Or maybe that annoying Rolex spam we’ve seen so much of lately.” Bzzt! Wrong! According to an informal but interesting poll on the wildly popular Slashdot site, none of…
Tsunami Tspammer Tstopped
Some people are sick. Really sick. But Christopher Pierson, of London, England really takes the cake. Pierson, a 40-year-old father of two (oh my, his poor children), was arrested and arraigned yesterday for sending spam to those known to be looking for lost loved ones, in the wake of last…
Porn is Out, Drugs are In
Timothy Leary would be proud. As a nation we are turning away from lurid sex displays in which women are debased and objectified, and turning towards drugs. At least in our spam. According AOL, and based on a recent analysis of their incoming spam (and they should know, they get…
Top U.S. Export? Survey Says – Spam!
If you received spam today (and if you are reading this, and therefore by definition online, the odds are about 99.99% that you did), the odds are also very good that it came from the Good Old United States of America. Yes, that’s right, the spirit of entrepreneurism which made…
Dutch Treat for Dutch Spammers
Dutch telecom regulator OPTA has announced a crack down against several violators of EU anti-spam standards, including against both individuals and small businesses accused of spamming. EU (European Union) anti-spam standards are generally much tougher and tighter than are those in the United States, and include a requirement that recipients…
AOL Users See Sharp Decrease in Spam
ISP giant America Online (AOL) has announced that their users have seen a dramatic decrease in spam over the course of the past year. According to AOL, spam messages reported by members for this past month, November 2004, numbered about 2.2 million per day, and that’s down from 11 million…
Software to Spam the Spammers
SpamItBack is a software which you can download, and which claims to allow you to create a message which you’d like to get across to those who spam you, and to “target the spammers websites, online ordering forms, or any personal spam e-mail addresses that have been discovered, with your…
AOL Thief Can’t Plead Guilty, Says Judge
Earlier this week we told you that the former AOL employee who stole the email addresses of 92 million AOL users, and then sold them to a spammer for $100,000, was due in Federal court and was going to plead “guilty” to charges that he violated CAN-SPAM. It was anticipated…
Spam, Spim, Spit…Achtooey!
First it was spam – the junk email we all know and love to hate. Then it was spim, which is spam sent by instant messenger (hence the “i m”). Move over boys, and meet “spit”. Spit is spam sent to a Voice Over IP (VoIP) connection, another name for…
Former AOL Employee Who Sold Email Addresses Facing Two Years in Prison
Jerry Smathers, a former AOL employee who first made the news by stealing more than 92 million AOL user email addresses, and selling them to spammers, is now facing up to two years in prison for his misdeed. Due in court in New York on Tuesday, it is anticipated that…
Spammers Slammed with $1Billion Court Penalty
We’ve all heard of AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Earthlink. And Aunty has noted many times on these pages the lawsuits which they have each, and together, instituted against spammers over the course of this past year. Good on ya, says Aunty. But it isn’t just big, well-known ISPs who can…
It’s in the Cards – Internet Worm Poses as Electronic Christmas Card
Instead of the Grinch who Stole Christmas, it’s the Worm who Sneaks Into Your Computer Disguised as an Electronic Christmas Card. And oh joy, targetted specifically towards Windows systems, just to ensure you a white-out Christmas. Yes, this year it’s the dreaded Zafi worm which is making the rounds garbed…
Deep Undercover, a Reporter Learns that Unsubscribing from Spam Works!
Brian McWilliams is a savvy reporter on the spam beat. No slouch, he, and author of the popular book “Spam Kings”, McWilliams Knows Spam. So, upon receiving the gazillionth piece of spam advertising fake Rolex watches, McWilliams decided to do what any righteous reporter would do: he decided that if…
Spam Rage Costs Reporter Her Job
It really wasn’t what they meant by “rage against the machine”, but radio reporter Rachel Buchman (no relation to Paul and Jamie) was fed up with spam and couldn’t take it any more, and when the spam which broke the camel’s back came in from LapTopLobbyist.com, she called them up…
The State of My Mailbox – an Essay in 3 Parts
by WD Basely — Background — This address has been in use for a long while; in Internet years I would call it middle aged. It has traveled around a good bit as well, having been used in various mailing lists, newsgroups and for myriad online signups for this and…
