Map the world according to spam
- Thread starter drillinto
- Start date
Australia is not a spam hotspot.
Kauri
E/W Learner
- Joined
- 3 September 2005
- Posts
- 3,428
- Reactions
- 11
Would posting nothing but links to other web pages be considered as spamming??? 
Would posting nothing but links to other web pages be considered as spamming???
If you use a fundamentalist definition of spamming, the answer is yes...
Please don't spam Nora !
The Six Stages of E-Mail
By NORA EPHRON / The New York Times / July 1, 2007
Stage One: Infatuation
I just got e-mail! I can’t believe it! It’s so great! Here’s my handle. Write me! Who said letter writing was dead? Were they ever wrong! I’m writing letters like crazy for the first time in years. I come home and ignore all my loved ones and go straight to the computer to make contact with total strangers. And how great is AOL? It’s so easy. It’s so friendly. It’s a community. Wheeeee! I’ve got mail!
Stage Two: Clarification
O.K., I’m starting to understand ”” e-mail isn’t letter-writing at all, it’s something else entirely. It was just invented, it was just born and overnight it turns out to have a form and a set of rules and a language all its own. Not since the printing press. Not since television. It’s revolutionary. It’s life-altering. It’s shorthand. Cut to the chase. Get to the point.
And it saves so much time. It takes five seconds to accomplish in an e-mail message something that takes five minutes on the telephone. The phone requires you to converse, to say things like hello and goodbye, to pretend to some semblance of interest in the person on the other end of the line. Worst of all, the phone occasionally forces you to make actual plans with the people you talk to ”” to suggest lunch or dinner ”” even if you have no desire whatsoever to see them. No danger of that with e-mail.
E-mail is a whole new way of being friends with people: intimate but not, chatty but not, communicative but not; in short, friends but not. What a breakthrough. How did we ever live without it? I have more to say on this subject, but I have to answer an Instant Message from someone I almost know.
Stage Three: Confusion
I have done nothing to deserve any of this:
Viagra!!!!! Best Web source for Vioxx. Spend a week in Cancún. Have a rich beautiful lawn. Astrid would like to be added as one of your friends. XXXXXXXVideos. Add three inches to the length of your penis. The Democratic National Committee needs you. Virus Alert. FW: This will make you laugh. FW: This is funny. FW: This is hilarious. FW: Grapes and raisins toxic for dogs. FW: Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s Final Farewell. FW: Kurt Vonnegut’s Commencement Address. FW: The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. AOL Member: We value your opinion. A message from Hillary Clinton. Find low mortgage payments, Nora. Nora, it’s your time to shine. Need to fight off bills, Nora? Yvette would like to be added as one of your friends. You have failed to establish a full connection to AOL.
Stage Four: Disenchantment
Help! I’m drowning. I have 112 unanswered e-mail messages. I’m a writer ”” imagine how many unanswered messages I would have if I had a real job. Imagine how much writing I could do if I didn’t have to answer all this e-mail. My eyes are dim. I have a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a galloping case of attention deficit disorder because every time I start to write something, the e-mail icon starts bobbing up and down and I’m compelled to check whether anything good or interesting has arrived. It hasn’t. Still, it might, any second now. And yes it’s true ”” I can do in a few seconds with e-mail what would take much longer on the phone, but most of my messages are from people who don’t have my phone number and would never call me in the first place. In the brief time it took me to write this paragraph, three more messages arrived. Now I have 115 unanswered messages. Strike that: 116.
Stage Five: Accommodation
Yes. No. No. No . Can’t. No way. Maybe. Doubtful. Sorry. So Sorry. Thanks. No thanks. Not my thing. You must be kidding. Out of town. O.O.T. Try me in a month. Try me in the fall. Try me in a year. NoraE@aol.com can now be reached at NoraE81082@gmail.com.
Stage Six: Death
Call me.
Nora Ephron, the author, most recently,of “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman,” is a contributing columnist for The New York Times.
The Six Stages of E-Mail
By NORA EPHRON / The New York Times / July 1, 2007
Stage One: Infatuation
I just got e-mail! I can’t believe it! It’s so great! Here’s my handle. Write me! Who said letter writing was dead? Were they ever wrong! I’m writing letters like crazy for the first time in years. I come home and ignore all my loved ones and go straight to the computer to make contact with total strangers. And how great is AOL? It’s so easy. It’s so friendly. It’s a community. Wheeeee! I’ve got mail!
Stage Two: Clarification
O.K., I’m starting to understand ”” e-mail isn’t letter-writing at all, it’s something else entirely. It was just invented, it was just born and overnight it turns out to have a form and a set of rules and a language all its own. Not since the printing press. Not since television. It’s revolutionary. It’s life-altering. It’s shorthand. Cut to the chase. Get to the point.
And it saves so much time. It takes five seconds to accomplish in an e-mail message something that takes five minutes on the telephone. The phone requires you to converse, to say things like hello and goodbye, to pretend to some semblance of interest in the person on the other end of the line. Worst of all, the phone occasionally forces you to make actual plans with the people you talk to ”” to suggest lunch or dinner ”” even if you have no desire whatsoever to see them. No danger of that with e-mail.
E-mail is a whole new way of being friends with people: intimate but not, chatty but not, communicative but not; in short, friends but not. What a breakthrough. How did we ever live without it? I have more to say on this subject, but I have to answer an Instant Message from someone I almost know.
Stage Three: Confusion
I have done nothing to deserve any of this:
Viagra!!!!! Best Web source for Vioxx. Spend a week in Cancún. Have a rich beautiful lawn. Astrid would like to be added as one of your friends. XXXXXXXVideos. Add three inches to the length of your penis. The Democratic National Committee needs you. Virus Alert. FW: This will make you laugh. FW: This is funny. FW: This is hilarious. FW: Grapes and raisins toxic for dogs. FW: Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s Final Farewell. FW: Kurt Vonnegut’s Commencement Address. FW: The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. AOL Member: We value your opinion. A message from Hillary Clinton. Find low mortgage payments, Nora. Nora, it’s your time to shine. Need to fight off bills, Nora? Yvette would like to be added as one of your friends. You have failed to establish a full connection to AOL.
Stage Four: Disenchantment
Help! I’m drowning. I have 112 unanswered e-mail messages. I’m a writer ”” imagine how many unanswered messages I would have if I had a real job. Imagine how much writing I could do if I didn’t have to answer all this e-mail. My eyes are dim. I have a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a galloping case of attention deficit disorder because every time I start to write something, the e-mail icon starts bobbing up and down and I’m compelled to check whether anything good or interesting has arrived. It hasn’t. Still, it might, any second now. And yes it’s true ”” I can do in a few seconds with e-mail what would take much longer on the phone, but most of my messages are from people who don’t have my phone number and would never call me in the first place. In the brief time it took me to write this paragraph, three more messages arrived. Now I have 115 unanswered messages. Strike that: 116.
Stage Five: Accommodation
Yes. No. No
. No . Can’t. No way. Maybe. Doubtful. Sorry. So Sorry. Thanks. No thanks. Not my thing. You must be kidding. Out of town. O.O.T. Try me in a month. Try me in the fall. Try me in a year. NoraE@aol.com can now be reached at NoraE81082@gmail.com.Stage Six: Death
Call me.
Nora Ephron, the author, most recently,of “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman,” is a contributing columnist for The New York Times.
Stock spammers regroup
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/06/26/internet-stock-spam-tech-cx_ag_0626spam.html
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/06/26/internet-stock-spam-tech-cx_ag_0626spam.html
- Joined
- 24 December 2006
- Posts
- 264
- Reactions
- 1
I use Outlook Express (faster than Outlook for me) and regularly get about 40 - 200 spam a day. However, I don't reallly notice them as I have a spam sorting software installed called Spambully, seems to work perfectly although occasionally once a week I get spam in my intray, and even rarer (about once every 6 months) I get a real email in my "Spam" folder. Uses Bayesian spam filter, wahtever that is. Cost is about $30, can try 14 days free http://www.spambully.com/
(PS I do not have any shares or conflict of interest!)
(PS I do not have any shares or conflict of interest!)
theasxgorilla
Problem solved... next bubble.
- Joined
- 7 December 2006
- Posts
- 2,343
- Reactions
- 1
What I do to combat spam is run my own domain and for each site or interest area that I become involved with I create seperate mail accounts. If I ever get a mail from some dodgy bastard who is abusing my email address I can identify them (due to the email account they've sent the mail to) and I know there after that they're dodgy. It's not 100% certain that they were malicious and actually gave my email address away, as it could just as easily have been someone harvesting their email address from a website somewhere. But even this is a reflection on the security standards at their site.
Might seem like a lot of work but my domain name is also MY name, so I want to keep it spam free. Its easier to change your gmail or hotmail email account name than it is to get a NEW name.
ASX.G
Might seem like a lot of work but my domain name is also MY name, so I want to keep it spam free. Its easier to change your gmail or hotmail email account name than it is to get a NEW name.
ASX.G
Amateurs ruin the web
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/computingandthenet/story/0,,2130794,00.html
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/computingandthenet/story/0,,2130794,00.html
Stock spammers now send PDF files
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2007/06/26/pdf-spam-outbreak/
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2007/06/26/pdf-spam-outbreak/
- Joined
- 24 December 2006
- Posts
- 264
- Reactions
- 1
Just checked my Spam files on OE and my Spambully shunts these emails with pdf files that exhort me to invest in o/s shares into my Spam file, even when there is no text. I can also use the toolbar to analyse origin, report spam, and to train the Spambully. Highly recommend this if you are plagued by spam
Attachments
Anti-spam products “don't work”
John Brodkin, Network World
July 2007
Most people are not happy with their anti-spam products, according to a new survey.
From McAfee and Symantec to Apple and Microsoft, most anti-spam vendors are failing to fully satisfy customers, according to the survey by Brockmann & Company.
The best-performing technology by a large margin is made by challenge-response vendors like Sendio and SpamArrest, which challenge the identity of first-time senders, the report states.
But customers rarely are fully satisfied by anti-spam filters packaged with email clients, hosted email or commercial anti-virus software. Too often, the products let spam through and mistakenly delete email that's not spam.
Thirty six percent of companies surveyed have lost business because of legitimate emails getting caught in spam filters, said report author Peter Brockmann, president and research director.
"Whatever products they have developed obviously haven't been working," Brockmann said.
That's bad news, as PDF spam seems poised to overtake image spam as the next big problem. "Now it looks like there's going to be PDF spam, which is even worse for businesspeople," Brockmann said. "We sign purchase orders and pass contracts back and forth [as PDFs] all the time."
Rather than rate each vendor individually, Brockmann's survey divided technologies into eight categories. The firm surveyed 520 people working in IT, sales, marketing, finance, human resources and administration, or C-level executives.
The rate of customers who are not "very satisfied" is more than 70 percent for six of the eight types of anti-spam technologies. Commercial software filters, such as those produced by McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro, fully satisfy just 22 percent of users, the report found. Filters that come with email clients, like those from Apple, IBM Lotus and Microsoft, fully satisfy only 21 percent of customers.
Satisfaction rates are similarly low for business-class email hosting providers, filtering appliances, and reputation systems known as "real-time black lists" from Commtouch, IronPort and Spamhaus.
The worst-performing technology appears to come from open source projects like SpamPal and SpamAssassin, which fully satisfy just 16 percent of users.
The most-satisfied customers use challenge-response vendors, which fully satisfied users 67 percent of the time.
Challenge-response tools allow messages from known senders without interruption, since virtually all spam comes from first-time senders. First-time senders are challenged with a reply email telling them to reply, click on a URL, or visit a website to complete delivery of the message.
"This procedure overcomes the weakness of spammers since spammers never monitor the reply-to accounts of their messages," the Brockmann report said.
Hosted email filtering services such as Google-Postini, AppRiver, and MXLogic performed second best, as customers report being very satisfied 42 percent of the time. These services use the processing power of Internet data centres to scour enormous quantities of email and find suspicious messages, Brockmann said.
People get an average of 11 spam messages per day, accounting for 15 percent of all messages, Brockmann said. That's after the work done by spam filters. Before filtering, probably 90 percent of email is spam, he says.
Brockmann has also devised a spam index that lets users calculate a score based on the amount of spam emails they get, the number of trapped messages, minutes per day dealing with spam, and estimated number of resend requests. Challenge-response vendors performed the best by a large margin under this measure as well, while business-class email hosting service providers did the worst.
John Brodkin, Network World
July 2007
Most people are not happy with their anti-spam products, according to a new survey.
From McAfee and Symantec to Apple and Microsoft, most anti-spam vendors are failing to fully satisfy customers, according to the survey by Brockmann & Company.
The best-performing technology by a large margin is made by challenge-response vendors like Sendio and SpamArrest, which challenge the identity of first-time senders, the report states.
But customers rarely are fully satisfied by anti-spam filters packaged with email clients, hosted email or commercial anti-virus software. Too often, the products let spam through and mistakenly delete email that's not spam.
Thirty six percent of companies surveyed have lost business because of legitimate emails getting caught in spam filters, said report author Peter Brockmann, president and research director.
"Whatever products they have developed obviously haven't been working," Brockmann said.
That's bad news, as PDF spam seems poised to overtake image spam as the next big problem. "Now it looks like there's going to be PDF spam, which is even worse for businesspeople," Brockmann said. "We sign purchase orders and pass contracts back and forth [as PDFs] all the time."
Rather than rate each vendor individually, Brockmann's survey divided technologies into eight categories. The firm surveyed 520 people working in IT, sales, marketing, finance, human resources and administration, or C-level executives.
The rate of customers who are not "very satisfied" is more than 70 percent for six of the eight types of anti-spam technologies. Commercial software filters, such as those produced by McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro, fully satisfy just 22 percent of users, the report found. Filters that come with email clients, like those from Apple, IBM Lotus and Microsoft, fully satisfy only 21 percent of customers.
Satisfaction rates are similarly low for business-class email hosting providers, filtering appliances, and reputation systems known as "real-time black lists" from Commtouch, IronPort and Spamhaus.
The worst-performing technology appears to come from open source projects like SpamPal and SpamAssassin, which fully satisfy just 16 percent of users.
The most-satisfied customers use challenge-response vendors, which fully satisfied users 67 percent of the time.
Challenge-response tools allow messages from known senders without interruption, since virtually all spam comes from first-time senders. First-time senders are challenged with a reply email telling them to reply, click on a URL, or visit a website to complete delivery of the message.
"This procedure overcomes the weakness of spammers since spammers never monitor the reply-to accounts of their messages," the Brockmann report said.
Hosted email filtering services such as Google-Postini, AppRiver, and MXLogic performed second best, as customers report being very satisfied 42 percent of the time. These services use the processing power of Internet data centres to scour enormous quantities of email and find suspicious messages, Brockmann said.
People get an average of 11 spam messages per day, accounting for 15 percent of all messages, Brockmann said. That's after the work done by spam filters. Before filtering, probably 90 percent of email is spam, he says.
Brockmann has also devised a spam index that lets users calculate a score based on the amount of spam emails they get, the number of trapped messages, minutes per day dealing with spam, and estimated number of resend requests. Challenge-response vendors performed the best by a large margin under this measure as well, while business-class email hosting service providers did the worst.
Fighting spam is a struggle
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/06/070806fa_fact_specter?currentPage=all
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/06/070806fa_fact_specter?currentPage=all
The Simpsons Movie sparks spam blast
Spate of spam messages entices recipients into validating their e-mail addresses -- leading to more spam
By Cara Garretson, Network World
July 31, 2007
Spammers are jumping on the success of The Simpsons Movie to trick e-mail users into validating their addresses, so they can then send them more spam.
Since the launch of the movie on July 27 spammers have been sending messages with an embedded picture of Homer Simpson in his underwear. The text asks if the recipient plans to see the new movie and to fill out a related survey by following an embedded link. If the recipient clicks on the link, the Web site records the e-mail address -- now knowing that there is a valid user -- and sends the address more spam.
The spam message also promises to award a prize to those who fill out the survey, according to antispam vendor SpamFighter, which caught The Simpsons Movie spam in its filters.
While this new spam blast uses a hot pop-culture topic to entice recipients, the purpose of the spam is a throwback to the early days of e-mail abuse. Unlike phishing scams of late that try to extract personal or financial information from users or e-mails with hidden malware that installs bot nets on unsuspecting PCs, the Simpsons' scam does nothing more than validate the legitimacy of the address, and then spam some more.
Another recent abuse that used the release of a Harry Potter novel and film to entice recipients was also comparatively benign; the W32/Hairy-A worm infected PCs and displayed a file that said "Harry Potter is dead," among other messages, but didn't download malware or attempt to extract information from the user.
Spate of spam messages entices recipients into validating their e-mail addresses -- leading to more spam
By Cara Garretson, Network World
July 31, 2007
Spammers are jumping on the success of The Simpsons Movie to trick e-mail users into validating their addresses, so they can then send them more spam.
Since the launch of the movie on July 27 spammers have been sending messages with an embedded picture of Homer Simpson in his underwear. The text asks if the recipient plans to see the new movie and to fill out a related survey by following an embedded link. If the recipient clicks on the link, the Web site records the e-mail address -- now knowing that there is a valid user -- and sends the address more spam.
The spam message also promises to award a prize to those who fill out the survey, according to antispam vendor SpamFighter, which caught The Simpsons Movie spam in its filters.
While this new spam blast uses a hot pop-culture topic to entice recipients, the purpose of the spam is a throwback to the early days of e-mail abuse. Unlike phishing scams of late that try to extract personal or financial information from users or e-mails with hidden malware that installs bot nets on unsuspecting PCs, the Simpsons' scam does nothing more than validate the legitimacy of the address, and then spam some more.
Another recent abuse that used the release of a Harry Potter novel and film to entice recipients was also comparatively benign; the W32/Hairy-A worm infected PCs and displayed a file that said "Harry Potter is dead," among other messages, but didn't download malware or attempt to extract information from the user.
