It's Raining Spam

Scott Hardie | March 24, 2004
Has anybody else gotten the same huge upsurge in spam that I have in the past week or so? With my filters on, I normally get about one spam message a week, but lately it's been 6-8 per day. (I know that's a blessedly small quantity compared to some diluged victims, but it's all relative.)

I noticed that a lot of the new spam uses accented letters to get past my filters -- one advertises warez by starting "The hóttést néw sóftwaré prógrams for your computér" -- but those have the opposite effect of what was intended. I can't filter the word "computer" because I get legitimate messages with it, but I can confidently block "computér" and know I'm missing nothing but the spam.

Denise Sawicki | March 24, 2004
Yeah, I don't know if it's just been the past week but I've gotten a lot more spam lately. I'm looking into www.mailblocks.com as an alternate free e-mail provider, I wonder if that will actually help...

Erik Bates | March 24, 2004
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Steve Dunn | March 24, 2004
I get a shitload of spam. What strikes me is how the products advertised tend to ebb and flow. For a while it was all about Viagra and other prescription drugs. I still get a lot of that, but the latest messages all seem to urge me to quit my job and make a new career selling on Ebay.

It's been a while since I got the Nigerian oil minister scam email. I find those to be the most entertaining spam of all.

Much less porn lately. I suppose the filters have become more adept at catching that stuff. Also, I've never received email solicitations for penis enlargers. Is it possible the spammers can tell from my IP address that I have no need for such products?

(Answering my own question... no, that is not possible. For several reasons).

Anna Gregoline | March 24, 2004
Haven't noticed a change.

Lori Lancaster | March 24, 2004
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Melissa Erin | March 24, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | March 24, 2004
Replies are actually a really bad thing to do, I hear, because it lets them know it's a legitimate address. Same thing with trying to get off of lists by using their "remove" feature.

John E Gunter | March 24, 2004
That is very true Anna, as soon as you send some kind of response back to them, assuming you can really get through, they know that they have a real address. Then you get sold all over the internet.

I was trying to get them to stop by hunting down their addresses, but it's become so hard to follow the trail back to the source anymore that I've given up. My personal response to spam is kerplunk!

Anna Gregoline | March 24, 2004
Yeah, it's just delete and repeat, day in and day out. =)