Subscribe by EmailSpam on the rise, those pricks
December 26, 2007 by Chip |Have you noticed an increase in email spam lately? I’ve gone from my usual 200 or so spam messages a day to about 2500 a day for the last couple of weeks. It looks like the spammers are just belting out numerous copies of the same messages over and over again — which is an odd tactic, because that makes them easier for spam filters to identify.
Speaking of spam filtering, I’m sure you’ve noticed the many ways spammers try to disguise their subject matter to get past the filters. A popular tactic these days is to use a synonym that’s too general to be positively identified as a black-listed subject.
For instance, consider a few of the synonyms used by ED product spammers for the specific part of the male anatomy that they are promising to enhance:
- “device” - how many geek emails would get screened if that word were black-listed? Pick-up line: “Hey baby, wanna get parallel?”
- “aggregate” - not sure what all we’re aggregating here, but somehow you get it in a Gestalt sort of way.
- “weapon” - hey, watch where you’re pointing that thing!
What other stand-ins have you seen in your spam bucket?
- Attachment spam - The latest trend
- The Scourge of Image Spam
- Imagineering the Spam
- Spam is now 83% of all e-mail
I have gmail, and even the spam folder is always empty.
Consider yourself lucky!
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/05/directory-harvesting-attacks-explained.html
You are not safe my friend
I also get a lot of Japanese, Chinese, and Russian spam. I haven’t bothered to try to translate any of it, though.
I’ve heard good things about Spamassassin, but I’ve never used it. I have my account pass through Postini, which catches about 95% of it.
It’s so sad.