We Wish You A Merry Spam-mas

from the it's-just-what-i-always-wanted dept

Mon, Nov 20th 2006 10:44am — Carlo Longino

If you find shares of penny stocks, herbal Viagra and fake Rolexes under the Christmas tree this year, you know who to thank: spammers who bump up their activity around the holidays. Apparently, just like retailers, the holiday season is a busy one for spammers, with "experts" saying it's because people are more likely to open spam messages this time of year -- "People sell fake Rolexes via spam e-mail, and fake Rolexes make good holiday gifts," one says, simplifying his family's shopping this year. The seasonal uptick combined with spammers' latest efforts to elude filters and other blocks, along with new and improved botnets has significantly increased the volume of spam being sent. While filter companies say they can block 98% of spam, a dramatic increase in overall volume, of course, leads to more messages slipping through the filters and ending up in peoples' inboxes. Obviously, you can point the finger at the spammers, but the people that continue to buy from spam messages really aren't helping, either. And for those of you thinking of taking the easy way out and doing your holiday shopping directly from your inbox, keep in mind there's a good chance that whatever that email is selling, it's a scam.

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6 Comments

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ekc, 20 Nov 2006 @ 11:40am

It figures
I was wondering why the amount of spam I was getting in my gmail account suddenly jumped from 4 or 5 per day up to about 30.
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Jack, 20 Nov 2006 @ 11:55am

PT Barnum
Wasn't it PT Barnum that said " there's a sucker born every minute " ? I don't know for sure how many people there are but for sure there were a lot less when he was alive . if it was 1440 back then and people didn't live as old, with all the advances in modern medecine saving tons of lives , it must be twenty fold now. By the way , you never see a smart animal dead on the side of the road... these spammers also know this!
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DittoBox, 20 Nov 2006 @ 11:56am

Lots of spam
Well over 300 messages this month, it peaked a few days ago at nearly 75 messages over 2 days, about 25 yesterday and today.

Gmail, thankfully has caught all but one of them.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Nov 2006 @ 12:06pm

"People sell fake Rolexes via spam e-mail, and fake Rolexes make good holiday gifts," one says, simplifying his family's shopping this year"

Dad, stop buying from spammers!
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Ryan, 20 Nov 2006 @ 12:29pm

haha
to those people saying 300 this month... I get that during my drive to work every morning.

You must not run websites with publicly available emails, or own domains with the email present.
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ehrichweiss, 20 Nov 2006 @ 1:18pm

Re: haha
publicly available email addresses!?!? Where in the world have you been for the past few years? Ever heard of contact forms and/or email obfuscation? I refuse to let any of my clients run a site without one or the other. It's typically considered the "professional" thing to do these days.
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