EZ Pass spam
Continue Reading

Don’t Fall for the EZ Pass Spam

Recently some spam posing as an email notice from E-Z Pass has been going around. The EZ Pass spam comes from “E-ZPass Service Center” with an email address of team@miraclemi.org or support@wirenet.org.

today I went to the beach text
Continue Reading

The “Today I Went to the Beach Sea Shell Hermit Crab” Blog Comment Spam

If you see this text on your website or blog: “Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!” ..your site has just been co-opted by a comment spammer.

shutterfly bundle of joy
Continue Reading

ShutterFly Delivers Bundle of New Baby Spam

In the world of email marketing oopsies, Shutterfly.com just delivered a whopping, bouncing baby screw-up. Shutterfly has sent out a massive number of “congratulations on your new baby” emails – to people who have not had babies. “Congratulations on your bundle of joy” says the email, “There’s nothing more amazing than bringing a new life into the world.” Although this faux pas on Shutterfly’s part is right up there.

wells fargo phishing
Continue Reading

Wells Fargo Phishing Spam – Full Text of May 2014 Scam

Here is the full text of one of the newest Wells Fargo Phishing Spam, which started showing up this month (May, 2014). This one comes with an attached HTML file named “Wells Fargo Instruction Form.html”. Whatever you do, don’t download or open it!

spam death notice douglass funeral home
Continue Reading

New Death Notice Phishing Spam from Douglass Funeral Home

Now, this is a new one: phishing spam that supposedly is a death notice of a friend; our example supposedly comes from Jason Bennett at Douglass Funeral Home.

spam
Continue Reading

Advertising Email Based on Prior Business Relationship is Spam, Users Say

Users were asked whether an email advertisement sent to them on the basis of a “pre-existing business relationship” was spam. All of the respondents were average Internet users, exactly the sort of user who receives this sort of email from countless businesses based on a prior business relationship with them. And survey says…. a resounding “Yes!” Two-thirds said that email advertisements sent on the basis of a pre-existing business relationship, without express permission, are spam!

Gmail logo
Continue Reading

What to Do About Spam from a Gmail or Google Account

What should be here is the article about what to do when you get spam from a Gmail account. In it we ranted about how Royal Stage Christian Performing Arts from Sacramento, and their executive diretor, Tamara Warta, spammed us, using Gmail and Google Apps. And we decried how difficult it was to report spam from a Gmail account to Google.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

“Free Gift Card” Text Message Spammer Rentbro Brought Down by FCC

We’ve all received them. Those spam SMS messages that tell you that “Your entry in our drawing WON you a FREE $1,000 Target Giftcard! Enter ‘312’ at www.target.com.tgrz.biz to claim it and we can ship it to you immediately!”, or something similar about a Walmart or Best Buy gift card. Now the scum behind that text message spam, Daniel Pessin and Jacob Engel, along with their shell company Rentbro, have been taken down by the Federal Communciations Commission (‘FCC’).

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

FTC has Rachel in its Crosshairs as They Clamp Down on Phone Spam Robocalls

The phone spam calls start out essentially the same, “Hi, this is Rachel from cardholder services..” or “Hi, this is Rachel from cardmember services…”.. then usually it will either say something like “..calling in reference to your current credit card account. It is urgent that you {take some action}”, or “Please hold for an important message…” or she will ask you to select from several options with your phone’s touch pad. Most often it is “Press 1 to speak to an operator, press 2 to be removed from the call list.” Stacey and Stacy have been making a lot of these calls too, about extended warranties. These are so-called “robocalls” – generated (often overseas) with the Rachel or other similar script and computerized dialing, and almost always peddaling some scam, be it debt relief, credit card consolidation, mortgage refinancing, or some similar financial scam. It has gotten so bad that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ran a “Robocall Challenge”, offering a $50,000 reward for the best proposed technology to deal with the burgeoning robocall problem.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Beware the Flood of Boston Marathon Bombing and Texas Explosion Scam Emails

As was to be expected, there has been a massive swell of scam emails riding on the coattails of the back-to-back tragedies of the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Texas fertilizer plant explosion. “CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Fertilizer Plant Explosion” reads one bogus subject line; “Aftermath to explosion at Boston Marathon” reads another.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Your Apple ID Wasn’t Used to Sign In to Facetime, iCloud, and iMessage on an iPhone 5

There has been a rash of fake notices this week, supposedly from Apple, warning that “Your Apple ID was used to sign in to FaceTime, iCloud, and iMessage on an iPhone 5”. Hopefully, if you received one of these, you were quickly able to realize that these fake Apple alerts were spam, but just in case you weren’t sure, we are confirming that for you.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Facebook Testing New System to Charge Users $1 to Send Messages to Non-Friends

Facebook proves once again that they can make the most underhanded actions seem like they are doing a favor for their users by testing a new feature: pay $1 to send a message to users with whom you’re not connected on the socia media site, in the name of reducing spam.

spam
Continue Reading

The Ultimate Definition of What is Spam

When spam first became a widespread phenomenon, back, oh, between 15 and 20 years ago, part of the problem in using existing laws to go after spam – or, indeed, in creating new laws specifically addressing spam – was that nobody could really agree on what is spam. What is the definition of spam? It was sort of like that classic line from Justice Potter Stewart – everyone would know it when they saw it, but nobody could quite agree on what “it” was. That all changed when Paul Vixie, founder of Mail Abuse Prevention System (“MAPS” – which is ‘spam’ spelled backwards) and I sat down and hammered out the definitive definition of spam.

How to Block or Otherwise Thwart or Deal with Spam Phone Calls on Your Land Line and Mobile Phone
Continue Reading

How to Block or Otherwise Thwart or Deal with Spam Phone Calls on Your Land Line and Mobile Phone

Yesterday we featured an article on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) contest challenging anyone from the public to come up with a way to beat spam phone calls. The reason for expanding their efforts, says the FTC, is because complaints about spam phone calls, or, “robocalls,” more than doubled in April of 2012, from their last high in October 2010 . So what should we do to avoid these nuisance calls until our unknown hero steps forward with the answer?

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Federal Trade Commission Offers $50,000 Bounty Reward to Whomever Can Stop Automated Phone Spam with First Ever “FTC Robocall Challenge”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responding to what they say is a huge surge in automated phone calls, or, “robocalls,” by offering a cash reward and prizes to the person, or group of people, who can thwart these calls in the “FTC Robocall Challenge.” According to the FTC, complaints about robocalls skyrocketed to a high of 212,000 this past April, compared to the last high of 65,000 complaints in October of 2010.