Spam is weird

JISHOU, HUNAN — By that headline, I mean comment spam, not the tinned meat. For weeks now, spam comments to one particular post I wrote in 2007 have been sneaking past my anti-spam filters. Every day, I have to manually delete at least two or three.

The comments are typically completely generic, complimenting the post or the blog in general, promising the writer will follow me, or imitate me, and by the way, mentioning some product or service the commenter is hawking. Some are more subtle, and make no product/service references, but the associated emails and URLs tip their hands. Here’s one spambot example, for some payday service:

I was recommended this blog through my cousin. I’m not sure whether this submit is written by way of him as no one else realize such targeted about my problem. You are amazing! Thank you!

And it’s just that one post. All I can guess is someone has linked to it on some spamifying service, and it’s now gone viral. Ironically, the post is about my site being hacked by a spammer.

As an experiment, I will either change the post’s headline (and thus its link) or remove it entirely in a few days.

Post to Twitter

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November 15th, 2011 | Tags: , | Category: General stuff | One comment

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A pox on Boxbe

JISHOU, HUNAN — There should be a special circle in Hell for people that purport to stop spam while creating it themselves. Witness, Boxbe.

Boxbe supposedly is a service that filters and prioritizes your email, which sounds really good to someone who gets a lot of email. So, some people have signed up for the service. A pox on them, too!

Last night, I got two very puzzling emails from the gmail addy of a fellow Picasa Web user, someone I don’t know at all and have never communicated with.

The first subject line said, “XXXXXX sent you a message from Picasa Web Albums.” The message included a thumbnail of this photo I took last May,

BaYueHe

Z2 roommates and the elephant at August Moon Lake

and this text:

Hi John

 
I would like to make the following request regarding this photo.

 
Please don't share this with anyone

 
Please contact me if you would like any additional information. Thank you for your consideration.

 
XXXXXX

 
- This email was sent by Picasa Web Albums on behalf of XXXXXX

 
Note: You may change your notification settings regarding these emails by clicking on the Settings link on Picasa Web Albums

Of course, I went to XXXXXX’s Picasa Web album, to see who the hell he is. Nope, don’t know him at all. And, more importantly, unless he’s disguised as an elephant statue with a broken trunk, he is not in the photo I took. Besides that, he apparently lives in Detroit. The photo was taken near Jishou, Hunan, at August Moon Lake.



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July 19th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: Commentary, General stuff | 3 comments

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