Could McAfee (and Firefox) kill spam?

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Today I received the most convincing phishing email yet to hit my inbox, to the extent that it inspired enough doubt in my mind that I clicked on one of the links (making sure my security software was up to date first, just in case!).

Why was I fooled? For one, it actually had my name in the email, and for another we as a magazine have been focusing on eBay for the last month or two as part of the investigative cover feature that adorns the current issue (eBay exposed). Could it be some sort of malicious attack from an eBay devotee, a paranoid part of my mind wondered?

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Is Mercy just looking for me?

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Forgive this slightly frivulous post, but I received this email in my inbox this morning – entitled “Hello Dear” – and was curious just how many other people received it:

Good day my dear

How are you today? I hope you are fine. If so thank be to God almighty. Please excuse me, I saw your contact email while browsing through the internet so I decided to contact you despite that I have not seen you in person. It will be my pleasure to communicate with you.

My name is Mercy John, from Siere_Leone in West Africa. I am single girl looking for honest and nice person. Somebody who care and fear God whom I can partner with. I don’t care about your colour or ethnicity. I would like to know you more, most especially what you like and what you dislike. I’m sending you this beautiful mail, with a wish for much happiness. I am looking forward to hear from you. Write me on my personal email [removed]@gmail.com) Thanks and God bless.

Greetings from,

MERCY.

Obviously I’ve already got in touch with Mercy and I fully expect us to be married next Autumn, but just how many rivals will I have for her affections? Let me know below, and if necessary we can duel at dawn for the right to her hand.

Spammers get the go-ahead in the US

Monday, September 15th, 2008

So it seems that you can now get away with sending spam from one country at least, guess which; Russia? Africa? China? Nope. The good old US of A.

Thanks to a court decision last week which overturned the notorious spammer Jeremy Jaynes’ nine-year prison sentence, it’s now deemed “unconstitutional” to jail spammers.

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MySpace wins hollow victory against Spam King

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when you really do not want to. I found myself having a little titter missus, which turned into something of a ROFL before morphing naturally into red-faced spitting feathers anger last night. The cause of the kerfuffle being the widespread media reporting of the massive victory for MySpace which had just won a $234 million lawsuit against the Spam King himself, Sanford Wallace along with his partner in crime Walter Rines.

MySpace has been quick to make much fuss about this being a record payout, about it being the biggest judgement in a CAN-SPAM Act ruling yet. Fair play, at face value there does seem cause for celebration. Anything that helps take down the spammer scum has got to be good news, right?

Wrong.

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