I’ve noticed a trend in the last few months - I’ve got some spam that seems to have had a modicum of thought put into it. While I despise spammers, I’m still interested to see how it can be done well. It also might be a good heads up for us, as some have come close to fooling me. Interesting tricks I’ve spotted recently:[ul]
[li]Spelling everything correctly and looking generally professional.[/li][li]Having a disguised link in an html email that redirects to an actual bank’s website, but with a fake login pop-up, but which is a perfect copy of the real pop-up, having no address bar so you can’t see where it is.[/li][li]Setting the priority to ‘low’ - the only ‘urgent’ emails I get are from technophobes and spammers, so I sometimes sort by reverse priority.[/li][li]Mobile spam: “You have a new voice message. Phone xxx-xxxx” Would be pretty convincing if I didn’t know my voice-mail didn’t use texts.[/li][li]Guaranteed cash prize of up to £100! - OK, this isn’t new, and came by post, but I just thought it was a wonderful example of saying absolutely nothing at all, while sounding impressive.[/li][/ul] What else?
Oooh, I got a very interesting spam the other day.
The subject line was “New Google Regulations.”
The body was something along the lines of:
"As you know by now, Google has rewritten its regulations and your website:
[url of my homepage]
does not meet them! If your website is not updated to comply with the new regulations immediately, it will be dropped from Google’s database! Our professional HTML technicians will help you rewrite your website . . . "
Rather audacious, don’t you think?
I didn’t read far enough to figger out what the scam was. Were they actually going to charge people for unnecessary website re-writes? Seems unlikely, since it’s totally fraudulent, and spam isn’t a very good way to stay under the radar. Maybe it was just some kind of phishing expidition, or they were just looking for e-mails. I didn’t even notice if there was an attachment.
From: Andrew Smith [kdhqdh@aol.com]
Hello, My name is Doris and I am earning my living as bulk mailer. I was advised to buy DarkMailer - a powerfull mass mailer tool - and I can assure you that this software really ROCKS, if you understand what a REAL ASS KICKING SPAM program is. But… I formatted my hard drive and my version of DarkMailer got lost. I contacted the vendors of DarkMailer and told them what happened and as existing customer I wanted a replacement copy of my DarkMailer. They denied my request and wanted me to pay another $500. Those shit headZ! NOW IT IS TIME TO REPAY THOSE GREEDY FUCKERS. I got another copy of DarkMailer and I am sending it to all my mail lists. You can catch it for free at [url deleted]
I run a website that includes story submissions from other people. The other day an email with the subject line “a new story for you” appeared and I didn’t even question it as I viewed it (I use Mailwasher before I download into Outlook, and Mailwasher doesn’t use HTML and thus doesn’t trigger any hidden “bugs” embedded in it, so I was safe to view it). I’ve had a couple other recent emails whose subject lines resemble the legitimate emails I get. I don’t know if they’re able to read my email inbox from the ISP or what, but it makes me wonder how much lower spammers will go to try getting their crap messages to us.
Just a few moments ago I got one titled “Remove your bills the Christian way.”
Amused, I clicked on it. Just a photograph of a couple hugging with sun beams coming from the clouds.
The quote “The borrower. . . is a slave to the lender Proverbs 22:7” is on it in a fancy cursive font. (I’d bet its either out of context or full quote is a LOT less relevent, though I don’t care enough to check).
Below the photo is written “Debt elimination services based on christian principles” along with 4 doves, one with an olive branch.
delete
Sounds relevant, but I have no idea what the Christian method of debt elimination might be.
I got one today whose subject was a little more direct in addressing the potential respondent’s concerns than most of the degree mill spam I see:
Get a college degree, even if you don’t deserve one!