OT: Interesting Emails

[Atrocities]

I love spam:

How interesting, I am being sued. It says so in this email I got. I must go to the web site and enter in all my personal information, including bank account info, to determine if I am the correct William Christopher. Very interesting indeed.

Oh lookie, and for "love muscle" enlargments and medication for woody Disfunction. I think not, God was kind to me at birth.

Oh wonderus, deals on cheap "factory" software. (Chinese copys of crappy MS products.) No thanks, if I want a crappy copy of an MS product, I will go to best buy

And yet another banker from Nigeria willing to cut me in on a great deal.

I get on average, about 8 of these a day now. I block them, and yet they still come. Oh well. The price I pay for sticking with crappy arse Email-Exress.

[Timstone]

Only 8 a day?! What the heck are you complaining about AT?! I get, hold on to your socks, a staggering 50 of those a day. Yes, that is in only 24 hours. Imagine when I go on vacation or away for work... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
Ah well, I just ignore them and delete them with two simple clicks. I'm not bothered by them at all. They're just a fact of live.

Hahaha... Woody Disfunction. I love that term! Great thinking AT!

Oh, please look at the Tech Gridder thread I started. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

[Mindi]

Be lucky you only get 8! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif I probably get about a hundred or more a day, Richard gets several times that. We finally did get a commercial product for spam for Richard's email when it started taking him over a half an hour just to download his mail in the morning. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Oh and when we went on vacation this past summer for two weeks? That took HOURS and HOURS to download before he could even start going through it.

[Raging Deadstar]

I Get None, God is kind to my e-mail inbox http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[rdouglass]

A recent article said Billy G. gets something like 3 million a day! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Of course, he just hires a staff of programmers to deal with it for him.....

[bearclaw]

At one point, about a year ago, I was getting 300 a day! I've changed ISP's since then and now I get about 2 or 3 a week. ahhh.

[Slynky]

Raging Deadstar said:
I Get None, God is kind to my e-mail inbox http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

I also get none.

[Arkcon]

Something suddenly possessed my sister to start to open, read and printout the emails from her spam folder at work. I told her to just forget about it, but she's intrigued. She's mystified at the contents -- random words, strung together from one of those text generators. I told her it was an attempt to beat spam filters -- so she asks, "Why?".

You know, I have no answer for that question. The spam filter finds it anyway, so it doesn't even work. They're not trying to sell her anything, there's no plaintext. There's no embedded image or HTML to send an infection, so I'm drawing a blank as to why the emails are sent.

They're from a German domain, so I'm just guessing the computer geeks at her school have script kiddie friends in Europe and they slam the networks at each other's school for the fun of it.

[Raging Deadstar]

Arkcon said:
Something suddenly possessed my sister to start to open, read and printout the emails from her spam folder at work...



Is your sister unhappy at work and trying to waste the company printer ink?

[Ragnarok-X]

Well until i setup a new email address i got like 20+ per day. Now im getting one or two per day, which is okay...

[Gandalph]

Before I moved to Washington, I was getting 50-75 a day. I was in Washington for over 3 years. When I came back to Santa Cruz, I signed back on with my old ISP using the same nick since it was still available. When I set up my email account and downloaded new email......Yep, over 8000 emails and all of them spam, some of them pretty nasty spam that could have potentially caused problems, some nasty virii. It seems my ISP never deleted my original account and just reattached me too it when I came back. 3 years worth of spam, OH MY!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif
Needless to say, I asked them to delete that account and continue to use my own server account. On that one, I use 3 different email addy's and, surprisingly, receive an inordinate amount of spam at the seiv addy. I seldom see it, however, as I use a spam filter (GFI Mail Essentials) and have it set to delete weekly. I occasionally check to make sure it is not catching legit emails.

[Arkcon]

Raging Deadstar said:
"Is your sister unhappy at work and trying to waste the company printer ink?"

Ahhh. I dunno what to say -- my sister, she's just not the geek that I am. She hasn't heard of these sorts of things and its all new and magical for her. That's a nice way of putting it -- on some mild level you could say she's just not as computer literate as the average person you'll meet on these forums.

I sent her a link to a story on Fark, something about some high school in the midwest. It think it was directly connecting teacher pay to student test scores, or something, I can't even recall it.

Anyway, two weeks after I sent it, she responds, "Sorry, I don't care much for Britney Spears. Is that really your musical taste?" And I'm like, "Huh? Wha... jus ... What are you talking about?"

It appears she's missed the embedded HTML link and was just reading the advertisement Yahoo! Mail puts beneath it's sig. I just don't know what to say. I just assumed everyone knows about those ads on web pages, and ignores them. Somehow she gravitated towards it.

Another time, I'm at my friends house. I've emailed myself my bookmarks so I can access them from his computer. I fire up hotmail, and start browsing, and my friend points out the animated "Find a Mate" advert on the side. I say "I'm sorry, but on my computer its blocked, so I didn't even know it was there." "Oh, no, don't worry, go ahead and click, meet someone." He doesn't even get what I was doing, using my own email as a storage point for bookmarks.

He doesn't get it, I never pay attention to the rare advert that makes it past my cookie and image blockers. I didn't even notice it. I wouldn't buy anything that needs to be advertised that way. I mean, find a mate, by that method? It just doesn't occur to me.

[kerensky]

Well until i setup a new email address i got like 20+ per day. Now im getting one or two per day, which is okay...




Before I changed E-mail addresses I would get about twenty a day on average.

Now if you want to talk about volumes of useful e-mail, you should visit my dads work e-mail. On good days he gets less than fifty non-spam e-mail (you know, from people he actually knows). He's said that he's actually gotten over a hundred non-spam e-mails in one day!!!

[tesco samoa]

i get none as well.

[geoschmo]

I used to get 50 - 75 a day at work. Changing isp or email wasn't an option. Someone here mentioned a product called "IHateSpam" and let me tell you the difference is amazing. I get just a few a day now and they are quickly dealt with by one click. Some mornings I open my email and there are no spam emails in my inbox. It's so nice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Fyron]

Arkcon said:
Something suddenly possessed my sister to start to open, read and printout the emails from her spam folder at work. I told her to just forget about it, but she's intrigued. She's mystified at the contents -- random words, strung together from one of those text generators. I told her it was an attempt to beat spam filters -- so she asks, "Why?".

You know, I have no answer for that question. The spam filter finds it anyway, so it doesn't even work. They're not trying to sell her anything, there's no plaintext. There's no embedded image or HTML to send an infection, so I'm drawing a blank as to why the emails are sent.

They're from a German domain, so I'm just guessing the computer geeks at her school have script kiddie friends in Europe and they slam the networks at each other's school for the fun of it.

They are probes trying to get a read reciept sent back by mail clients set to send them by default when you read the email. Any read reciepts that come back go into a list of "valid" email addresses.

[Baron Munchausen]

Yep...

Now that I use Mozilla for my email instead of Outlook Bug-Express I have set it to NOT load images and other URLs in emails. You are just telling the spammers that they have a live one when you look at the email unless you deliberately disconnect before viewing it.

I generally get several spam Messages a day but nothing like what most people get. I managed to keep my email address very private/restricted for a long time so I didn't get much spam and was still using OE out of habit/inertia. But I got a 'phishing' attack email that loaded some sort of automatic script (invoking IE despite my default browser being Mozilla) and tried to send me to a website in China a few months ago and that was it for OE. Now I'm using Mozilla and Mozilla mail exclusively. No more Ieeee or Oeeee problems for meeee! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Electrum]

I usually recommend to my friends that, when they get their main E-mail account from their ISP, give it ONLY to immediate freinds & family, telling them not to pass it on w/o talking to them first. Then I suggest that they open a free accout like yahoo or hotmail & use it when asked by Online sites for an address. That way when it fills w/ junk, they can dump it & start a new one easily.

[Atrocities]

Mindi said:
Be lucky you only get 8! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif I probably get about a hundred or more a day, Richard gets several times that. We finally did get a commercial product for spam for Richard's email when it started taking him over a half an hour just to download his mail in the morning. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Oh and when we went on vacation this past summer for two weeks? That took HOURS and HOURS to download before he could even start going through it.



Ouch. I would think that there would be a need for a product that would download your email for you while you were on vacation. Auto detect spam and delete it while preserving real emails. Hummmmm - with all the game developers that Shrapnel knows perhaps some could make this program and sell it through shrapnel? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Atrocities]

Gandalph said:
Before I moved to Washington, I was getting 50-75 a day. I was in Washington for over 3 years. When I came back to Santa Cruz,




Another defector! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif The Evergreen state is GOD COUNTRY! Be sure to tell everyone down there to STAY in CA. Tell them that WA is a horrible backwards hillbilly place with dirt roads filled with horse and buggies. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Please.

[Mindi]

Atrocities said:

Mindi said:
Be lucky you only get 8! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif I probably get about a hundred or more a day, Richard gets several times that. We finally did get a commercial product for spam for Richard's email when it started taking him over a half an hour just to download his mail in the morning. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Oh and when we went on vacation this past summer for two weeks? That took HOURS and HOURS to download before he could even start going through it.



Ouch. I would think that there would be a need for a product that would download your email for you while you were on vacation. Auto detect spam and delete it while preserving real emails. Hummmmm - with all the game developers that Shrapnel knows perhaps some could make this program and sell it through shrapnel? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



LOL, well this past vacation was particularly bad because we both agreed not to bring our laptops (and therefore check our mail) or we would end up doing work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

[Baron Munchausen]

I've had a degree of success in reporting scammers to their email providers, btw. When you get those 'give us your bank account number so we can transfer funds out of the country' Messages just view source (to get the real point of origin in the headers) and send them to abuse @ <source> -- BOTH the email reply-to address (because that's the pickup/contact point) and the actual source for the email. It only takes seconds and lots of ISPs will respond by at least closing the account(s) involved. I have substantially reduced the amount of this sort of spam that I am getting by being persistent with this counter-measure.

[Fyron]

Baron Munchausen said:
Yep...

Now that I use Mozilla for my email instead of Outlook Bug-Express I have set it to NOT load images and other URLs in emails. You are just telling the spammers that they have a live one when you look at the email unless you deliberately disconnect before viewing it.

I generally get several spam Messages a day but nothing like what most people get. I managed to keep my email address very private/restricted for a long time so I didn't get much spam and was still using OE out of habit/inertia. But I got a 'phishing' attack email that loaded some sort of automatic script (invoking IE despite my default browser being Mozilla) and tried to send me to a website in China a few months ago and that was it for OE. Now I'm using Mozilla and Mozilla mail exclusively. No more Ieeee or Oeeee problems for meeee! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I tend to have Iexplore.exe blocked by my firewall. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Kamog]

I get those strange cryptic Messages too that seem to be just a collection of random words. I also get Messages with mystery attachments that I immediately delete.

[Renegade 13]

I usually only get about 2 spam emails a day, and that's with the email address that I've had since I was 12. So for almost 6 years, I've managed to avoid becoming innundated with spam. It's a miracle!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Randallw]

It sometimes surprises me the emails I get. Sometimes it simply says "Here is that attachment you asked for", I think not http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif, or even no message at all. Either they are stupid or they think I am. I don't know which is worse.

[Atrocities]

Wouldn't it just be hiliarious if we found out that windows gathered our email information and then uploaded said info to MS and then MS sold that info to Spammers. I would drive the 300 miles to MS Corprate office and pee on the MS Sign out front. When asked why, I shall say the insessent spam email I got because MS sold my info drove me insane. Wanna bet I get off.... ew, ok bad joice of words.... get away with it.

[Ragnarok]

geoschmo said:
I used to get 50 - 75 a day at work. Changing isp or email wasn't an option. Someone here mentioned a product called "IHateSpam" and let me tell you the difference is amazing. I get just a few a day now and they are quickly dealt with by one click. Some mornings I open my email and there are no spam emails in my inbox. It's so nice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



I believe that was me that suggested IHateSpam. We love that product here at work as NO spam makes it to our inbox. One user gets about 200+ per day in his spam list but none gets by the system.

[Grandpa Kim]

Atrocities said:
Wouldn't it just be hiliarious if we found out that windows gathered our email information and then uploaded said info to MS and then MS sold that info to Spammers. I would drive the 300 miles to MS Corprate office and pee on the MS Sign out front. When asked why, I shall say the insessent spam email I got because MS sold my info drove me insane. Wanna bet I get off.... ew, ok bad joice of words.... get away with it.



LOL With a jury of your peers, MS wouldn't stand a chance. ROFL

I'm still training Thunderbird's junk mail filter, so I see much of my spam. ... If I bought a tenth of the prescription drugs offered to me I'd be stoned for the rest of my natural life and well into the hereafter! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
...But the money I'd save would make me as wealthy as dear Mr. Gates. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[David E. Gervais]

Why is it that many people think 'Paying Less' is the same as 'Saving money'? It's not. To save money you need to stash it away for safe keeping. In the case of spending less it would mean depositing the 'difference' between the sale price and the regular price in a bank account so that it can gain interest.

But I digress, and this is my 2700th post http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

"A quilting we will go, A quilting we will go, Hi Ho The Merry-o A quilting we will go." http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

[geoschmo]

Well, it's semantics really, but you can be said to be saving money if you pay less for something that you were planning on buying anyway. But if the lower price inticed you buy something that you otherwise wouldn't have bought, then no, you aren't really saving anything.

[AgentZero]

I've got me a lovely little Yahoo account that only gets 5-10 spams a day & Thunderbird's junk filter handles most of those nicely. On the other hand, my hotmail account, which I use whenever a website asks me for an email addresss, gets 400 a DAY. Doesn't bother me though. Just cruise through every so often and delete everything. Easy peasy.

[AMF]

If anyone out there wants a Gmail account I can send them one. I have six to give away. You could start a gmail account anew and probably have it free from spam for some period of time provided you're cautious/diligent in not giving it out to websites or skeezoids...

Just send me an email, and I'll send you the gmail account invite...

thanks,

Alarik

[Baron Munchausen]

Yeah, I also have taken to blocking the 'Windows default' browser in my firewall. Only when I need to visit Windows Update do I unblock it.

[Baron Munchausen]

Grandpa Kim said:

Atrocities said:
Wouldn't it just be hiliarious if we found out that windows gathered our email information and then uploaded said info to MS and then MS sold that info to Spammers. I would drive the 300 miles to MS Corprate office and pee on the MS Sign out front. When asked why, I shall say the insessent spam email I got because MS sold my info drove me insane. Wanna bet I get off.... ew, ok bad joice of words.... get away with it.



LOL With a jury of your peers, MS wouldn't stand a chance. ROFL

I'm still training Thunderbird's junk mail filter, so I see much of my spam. ... If I bought a tenth of the prescription drugs offered to me I'd be stoned for the rest of my natural life and well into the hereafter! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
...But the money I'd save would make me as wealthy as dear Mr. Gates. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif



I have just gotten around to starting to use the Mozilla 'junk' filters myself in the Last few days. I only had to flag about three of those stupid '419 scam' Messages before it started to recognize them. Now it automatically moves them to the 'junk' folder. Very nice. We'll see if I bother to report them to their ISP anymore now... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Baron Munchausen]

AgentZero said:
I've got me a lovely little Yahoo account that only gets 5-10 spams a day & Thunderbird's junk filter handles most of those nicely. On the other hand, my hotmail account, which I use whenever a website asks me for an email addresss, gets 400 a DAY. Doesn't bother me though. Just cruise through every so often and delete everything. Easy peasy.



Warning: As I have posted before, the word 'on the net' is that MS actually does harvest the email addresses of people you send Messages to and they get sold to various 'commercial' concerns who can then pass them on to spammers. The spammers just buy regular commercial lists If you ever receive email from other people who have hotmail accounts, you know where the spammers are getting your address.