Spammer idiocy

robert@fm · 2 Feb 2010, 05:42 AM

Rule 3: spammers are stupid.

Today I received a PM (on another forum which I haven't visited in years) offering illegal downloads of various movies, most of which are still in UK cinemas (e.g. Avatar, Up In The Air), and which I found mind-boggling because the offer was for "fast HQ downloads". Surely this is a contradiction in terms -- if a video file is large enough to be HQ, there's no way in this world that downloading it is going to be fast...

(And the idiot made the mistake of using a URL redirection service, so (courtesy of me) all his links are now dead...)

Bamb0 · 2 Feb 2010, 09:50 PM

Hehe its always good to have the redirect link.. Once it goes down they are back to square 1

Tsunami · 3 Feb 2010, 06:30 PM

The silliest spam I ever received was a random guy claiming to be from Burkina Faso and asking for my bank account details because he wanted to offer me 1000000 €

You gotta wonder if there are actually people out there stupid enough to believe such mails. I mean, for gods sake, if someone really insists on being a spammer, at least try to make it look like something that could actually be a sincere mail! Some spam is so silly that I doubt any person on this planet would actually take it for a real message...

n5bb · 4 Feb 2010, 08:52 AM

A few people actually do fall for those "pay a service fee so I can send you a huge pile of money" scams. See this report for 2008 statistics.

Some of these are harder to detect (such as phishing emails which duplicate typical financial emails). And most of us are greedy, and would be very happy to get something for free. They forget that if something is too good to be true, it's fake! If postal mail was cheap and authorities didn't prosecute, the scammers would use snail mail more often for these crimes. The old chain letter was one example which became obsolete after email allowed nearly zero cost and some degree of anonymity.

Bill

Tsunami · 4 Feb 2010, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n5bb

A few people actually do fall for those "pay a service fee so I can send you a huge pile of money" scams. See this report for 2008 statistics.

Some of these are harder to detect (such as phishing emails which duplicate typical financial emails). And most of us are greedy, and would be very happy to get something for free.

True, but do those people never think why someone would give them a million dollars in the first place, especially when this person is a total stranger claiming to be from a far away country?

It is incredible some people fall for that.

Oh well, I use the rule "don't open the mail if you don't know the sender" unless the subject of the email clearly indicates it comes from someone who actually visited my blog and wanted to comment on it.

robert@fm · 25 Jun 2010, 05:09 PM

I've received a spam with the subject "The raisin of a lady's outlook is Cartier necklace".

The dried grape of a lady's Microsoft email client?

Is that supposed to be English?

DrStrabismus · 25 Jun 2010, 08:22 PM

This is quite common these days. It's random text, with a product name dropped in. You know what they are selling, but it make it harder for spam filters to pick up on it.

robert@fm · 9 Apr 2012, 07:08 PM

I've just received an online-pharmacy spam which (according to the summary -- needless to say, I'm never going to open such rubbish) boasted that the pharmacy in question had been voted "best online pharmacy" by someone!

To my mind, this is like the spammer on here who proclaimed Farcebook to be the best social-networking site, or like someone being proclaimed the best rapper in the biz; there's no merit in being the best of a bad bunch.

chrisretusn · 13 Apr 2012, 07:05 PM

Just reported one posted here at EMD. Don't see them much... Thank You Mods!

drew · 13 Apr 2012, 08:08 PM

Our biggest banks report about spam that pretend
to be official emails from the Bank Security Department.

For to protect the account holder the Security needs to
set some database to the new security level so they ask
for the personal info that would allow them to log in.

Hopefully none will trust it is for real and in case them
feel unsure make a phone call and ask if they have sent it.

Last time they did it then the Swedish had grammar errors
but this time it looks very "official" with the right logos and
so on.
They sure are at it and learn from mistakes.,

robert@fm · 15 Apr 2012, 05:45 PM

I just received a spam claiming to be from a couple called the Dawes, who allegedly had won the EuroMillions lottery and wanted to spread the wealth around. As is often the case, the email started with "This email is personally directed to you" -- but the "to" was "undisclosed recipients"!

They must reckon thay because they're stupid, so are we...

SusanUKF · 20 Apr 2012, 12:48 PM

I always find it quite hilarious that even in the title's of many of these emails how many typos/spelling errors or incorrect grammar is evident. It is sad how many people that aren't aware how corrupt things might actually be and open them and read them and actually believe them, but I have seen documentaries and have read various articles online over the years of the people they are able to con.

n5bb · 21 Apr 2012, 10:34 AM

Welcome to the EMD Forums, adamM!

This is the Off-Topic Lounge (where we discuss any family-friendly topic except for email), but a moderator will probably move your post and replies to a more appropriate forum here at EMD.

The first thing we will need to know is which email system you use and how you use it. For example:

Which email system do you use? Examples are Gmail, Fastmail, Runbox, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or webmail through your ISP).
Do you use an email client (such as Thunderbird or Microsoft Live Mail or Outlook)?
Do you use webmail exclusively?

If you add the email address of your common contacts (friends, family members, businesses whose email you wish to read, etc.) to your address book, most email systems will whitelist that address. This means that email from that source will not be accidentally treated as spam. This does not reduce your spam, but insures that if you set your spam settings to heavily filter your mail (if this is possible with your email system) then you won't accidentally lose important messages. There may be other suggestions we can add after we know which email system and email client you use.

Bill

robert@fm · 2 Jun 2012, 07:14 PM

There was earlier today posted a reply to a thread about a problem, where the spammer claims to have "solved" it by tweaking a browser setting -- but (1) they don't specify which browser or which setting, and (2) it's clearly a server-side problem anyway, so twiddling the browser settings would have no effect.

Blatantly obviously then, just a vehicle for the spam sig attached to the post. I hope it's been zapped by now, or will be soon...

FredOnline · 2 Jun 2012, 07:44 PM

When I see spam like this, I immediately report it.

Just wonder what the process is once spam is reported - does it go to each mod or ?

2 Feb 2010, 05:42 AM	#1
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	Spammer idiocy Rule 3: spammers are stupid. Today I received a PM (on another forum which I haven't visited in years) offering illegal downloads of various movies, most of which are still in UK cinemas (e.g. Avatar, Up In The Air), and which I found mind-boggling because the offer was for "fast HQ downloads". Surely this is a contradiction in terms -- if a video file is large enough to be HQ, there's no way in this world that downloading it is going to be fast... (And the idiot made the mistake of using a URL redirection service, so (courtesy of me) all his links are now dead...)

21 Apr 2012, 10:34 AM	#13
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,929	Welcome to the EMD Forums, adamM! This is the Off-Topic Lounge (where we discuss any family-friendly topic except for email), but a moderator will probably move your post and replies to a more appropriate forum here at EMD. The first thing we will need to know is which email system you use and how you use it. For example: Which email system do you use? Examples are Gmail, Fastmail, Runbox, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or webmail through your ISP). Do you use an email client (such as Thunderbird or Microsoft Live Mail or Outlook)? Do you use webmail exclusively? If you add the email address of your common contacts (friends, family members, businesses whose email you wish to read, etc.) to your address book, most email systems will whitelist that address. This means that email from that source will not be accidentally treated as spam. This does not reduce your spam, but insures that if you set your spam settings to heavily filter your mail (if this is possible with your email system) then you won't accidentally lose important messages. There may be other suggestions we can add after we know which email system and email client you use. Bill Last edited by n5bb : 21 Apr 2012 at 10:40 AM.

2 Feb 2010, 09:50 PM	#2
Bamb0 Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: USA Posts: 1,873	Hehe its always good to have the redirect link.. Once it goes down they are back to square 1

3 Feb 2010, 06:30 PM	#3
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	The silliest spam I ever received was a random guy claiming to be from Burkina Faso and asking for my bank account details because he wanted to offer me 1000000 € You gotta wonder if there are actually people out there stupid enough to believe such mails. I mean, for gods sake, if someone really insists on being a spammer, at least try to make it look like something that could actually be a sincere mail! Some spam is so silly that I doubt any person on this planet would actually take it for a real message...

4 Feb 2010, 08:52 AM	#4
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,929	A few people actually do fall for those "pay a service fee so I can send you a huge pile of money" scams. See this report for 2008 statistics. Some of these are harder to detect (such as phishing emails which duplicate typical financial emails). And most of us are greedy, and would be very happy to get something for free. They forget that if something is too good to be true, it's fake! If postal mail was cheap and authorities didn't prosecute, the scammers would use snail mail more often for these crimes. The old chain letter was one example which became obsolete after email allowed nearly zero cost and some degree of anonymity. Bill

25 Jun 2010, 05:09 PM	#6
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	I've received a spam with the subject "The raisin of a lady's outlook is Cartier necklace". The dried grape of a lady's Microsoft email client? Is that supposed to be English?

25 Jun 2010, 08:22 PM	#7
DrStrabismus The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,804	This is quite common these days. It's random text, with a product name dropped in. You know what they are selling, but it make it harder for spam filters to pick up on it.

9 Apr 2012, 07:08 PM	#8
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	I've just received an online-pharmacy spam which (according to the summary -- needless to say, I'm never going to open such rubbish) boasted that the pharmacy in question had been voted "best online pharmacy" by someone! To my mind, this is like the spammer on here who proclaimed Farcebook to be the best social-networking site, or like someone being proclaimed the best rapper in the biz; there's no merit in being the best of a bad bunch.

13 Apr 2012, 07:05 PM	#9
chrisretusn Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Philippines Posts: 846	Just reported one posted here at EMD. Don't see them much... Thank You Mods!

13 Apr 2012, 08:08 PM	#10
drew The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,626	Our biggest banks report about spam that pretend to be official emails from the Bank Security Department. For to protect the account holder the Security needs to set some database to the new security level so they ask for the personal info that would allow them to log in. Hopefully none will trust it is for real and in case them feel unsure make a phone call and ask if they have sent it. Last time they did it then the Swedish had grammar errors but this time it looks very "official" with the right logos and so on. They sure are at it and learn from mistakes.,

15 Apr 2012, 05:45 PM	#11
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	I just received a spam claiming to be from a couple called the Dawes, who allegedly had won the EuroMillions lottery and wanted to spread the wealth around. As is often the case, the email started with "This email is personally directed to you" -- but the "to" was "undisclosed recipients"! They must reckon thay because they're stupid, so are we...

20 Apr 2012, 12:48 PM	#12
SusanUKF Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 5,428	I always find it quite hilarious that even in the title's of many of these emails how many typos/spelling errors or incorrect grammar is evident. It is sad how many people that aren't aware how corrupt things might actually be and open them and read them and actually believe them, but I have seen documentaries and have read various articles online over the years of the people they are able to con.

2 Jun 2012, 07:14 PM	#14
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	There was earlier today posted a reply to a thread about a problem, where the spammer claims to have "solved" it by tweaking a browser setting -- but (1) they don't specify which browser or which setting, and (2) it's clearly a server-side problem anyway, so twiddling the browser settings would have no effect. Blatantly obviously then, just a vehicle for the spam sig attached to the post. I hope it's been zapped by now, or will be soon...

2 Jun 2012, 07:44 PM	#15
FredOnline The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 2,616	When I see spam like this, I immediately report it. Just wonder what the process is once spam is reported - does it go to each mod or ?