Spam -O- Rama

It happens everyday. Someone I never met in Africa or Nigeria or some other place wants to send me millions of dollars. DELETE

Hey I've won the Swiss Lottery. That's the one I don't even play. DELETE

Here is a hot stock tip that is sure to make me rich overnight. DELETE

That request I never made has provided me with great financing on a car, house, refinancing, etc. DELETE

I'm such a great person they want to send me fabric softener and hand sanitizer. DELETE

Ink on sale, slice your phone bill in half, a free bottle of Viagra, Jewlery auctions, Local women want to meet me.... STOP IT!

People I don't know are emailing me like they are my best friends. If they were my friends I'd meet them for lunch and punch them in the mouth for all the garbage they send me.

Spam is back — in e-mail in-boxes and on everyone’s minds. In the last six months, the problem has gotten measurably worse. Worldwide spam volumes have doubled from last year, according to Ironport, a spam filtering firm, and unsolicited junk mail now accounts for more than 9 of every 10 e-mail messages sent over the Internet.

Much of that flood is made up of a nettlesome new breed of junk e-mail called image spam, in which the words of the advertisement are part of a picture, often fooling traditional spam detectors that look for telltale phrases. Image spam increased fourfold from last year and now represents 25 to 45 percent of all junk e-mail, depending on the day, Ironport says.

How is all this happening? Spammers have built vast networks of computers belonging to users who unknowingly downloaded viruses and other rogue programs. The infected computers begin sending out spam without the knowledge of their owners. Yes, you could be the one sending the spam. Secure Computing, an antispam company in San Jose, Calif., reports that 250,000 new computers are captured and added to these spam “botnets” each day.

Right now I have over 1300 deleted emails just this month. But hey, I've got a great stock tip for you!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm an IT guy and whoever is running your mail server is not worth their weight in salt!

Since I implemented our spam filter last year we have caught over 800,000 spam messages. 55% of our incoming mail is spam, 0% makes it into my users Inboxes.

I do consulting work! : )

-Anony

Shaun Pierce said...

That's impressive. But do you know how much say I have in who does what with our server. Nada.

I once made a less then kind comment about an IT guy and I was shut down for weeks. So I adore everyone now.

Usually it's not bad, but the past few months I have at least 30 stock tips a day.

How about the death penelty for spammers?

~Mark said...

Ours has actually been altered for a specific reason. That's why the spam numbers picked up.

Anonymous said...

I support the death penalty for spammers! Wait are we talking about unsolicited email or the canned ham?

If it takes you 2 seconds for every spam you have to delete, that is a ton of productivity down the drain in a year's time.

-Anony