Strange Spam

 

I've been getting a lot of spam with different quotes similar to this one.

"Art is one of the means whereby man seeks to redeem a life which is experienced as chaotic, senseless, and largely evil." Aldous Leonard Huxley

Can't see any point!

There are also ones like this.

monel curate monel? hysteresis, fend try.
convene vreeland velasquez try suffragette communicant, suffragette isabel faith isabel hydrous capacitive.

fend suffragette suffragette

compendium compendium terrace? gifford, correspondent isabel.
mauricio reverend vreeland isabel appleton hydrosphere, capacitive hysteresis try pragmatist booky supremacy.

bahrein pierce terrace

extemporaneous try extemporaneous? axon, hydrous borneo.

suffragette grandchild.

None of them seem to have any links and I can't see what message they are about. Perhaps, the senders are trying out new spam methods.

Dating Group Team

 

Not sure if it's fraud, but it is one for the dustbin.

Good Day,

We offer a part time job on your computer.

Job Description:

We will provide you with the texts for our employees with the important information and you will correct the texts as an english speaking person and send them back to us.

Salary:

We don't have a fixed salary for this vacancy. We will pay you $7.00 for every 1Kb of the corrected text. You will get paid at the END of each month. Every month your salary will be different as it depends on your activity.

Example: If you correct about 5Kb of texts per day you will get over $1000.00 at the end of the month.

Requirements:

-Location: USA
-Age: 20+
-Home computer, e-mail address and Microsoft Word -Responsibility

To apply for job please send us the following information to:

Dating.Services.73@gmail.com
__________
FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS:
CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE:
Phone number (home or cell, but SHOULD BE available any day time):
E-MAIL:
AGE:
OCCUPATION:
EDUCATION:
AVAILABLE HOUR TO WORK WITH US:
----------

As soon as we revise your aplication we will contact you within 24 hours.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.

Awaiting for your application.

With respect
Dating Group Team

UK Spam from the US

 

Increasingly, I'm getting a lot of spam from UK companies from US direct mail organisations. I got four from load/credit companies today.

There was also one from Tesco. I just don't use them anymore, unless it is to my advantage. I've pointed this out in letters to the company and nothing happens.

Rail Scrap

 

Not really sure what this is about.

As I was spam I posted it.

Description:
We wish to confirm you with full corporate responsibility that we are end seller ready, willing and able to transact and sell the commodities, with the following specifications, terms and conditions.
Sales and purchases will be based on the following procedures
.
The Product is Used Train Rail Scraps with the Specification of R50 & R 65 as conformed to the ISRI Codes.
Manufactured in Russia & Ukrain
The Origin is South Africa .
Quantity: 360, 000 MT (Three hundred and sixty Thousand Metric Tons)
Contract Period: Twelve Months.
Price: USD$125 per Metric Ton FOB.
Payment Terms: with only POF we will deliver the goods and there will be no up-front payment of any sort until delivery to your port. The POF will come as Pre-advise(MT799) to our bank which Seller will present to Buyer as his nominated bank account.

If you confirm willing, ready, we will send you the Verbiage of POF.

Inspections: By Buyer and at the port of loading by SGS for clear and clean of the quantity of the goods loaded on board vessel.
Chemical Composition: International Standards as follows:
R50 - 51.67 kg/m GOST 7173-75
C : 0.67 -- 0.8%
Mn : 0.75 -- 1.05%
Si : 0.13 -- 0.28%
P : max. 0.035%
S : max. 0.045%
Ar : max. 0.15%
R65 - 64.72 kg/m GOST 8165-75
C: 0.6 -- 0.082%
n: 0.75 -- 1.05%
Si: 0.13 - 0.28%
P: max. 0.035%
S: max. 0.045%
Ar: max. 0.15
Please confirm if you are willing to close down the contract as to enable us schedule and arrange for your urgent trip to South Africa for inspections of the materials and signing of the contract with us.

Finally, be informed that upon your acceptance to this offer, we will be providing you with all the related documents for your perusals before coming down to South Africa for the signing of the contract with us. Contact us with this phone number (+27825853552)

PLEASE REVERT YOUR EMAILS TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS: ebl.contract@gmail.com or ebl1.contractor@gmail.com
Regards
Benard M Radebe
Thanks

Sears Spam

 

Every day I get three or four spam e-mails from Sears.

It just shows how stupid some companies are, as I don't have a Sears near me. They should get their act together.

Loan Spam

 

I'm getting about six to ten spam messages a day trying to sell me a loan. Not the usual sort from joke companies in the UK, but from companies in the UK, who would think themselves totally proper.

One had an APR of 192% and was proud of the fact!

Isn't it illegal for these messages to be sent out from a spammer in the US?

Incidentally, the e-mail addresses they are sent to, were all harvested from the daisy.co.uk web site some years ago.

Spam is 30 Years Old

 

According to the Register, spam is thirty years old tomorrow.

Happy birthday spam!

Subject: $REPLINK

 

There are a lot of spam messages of this nature about today.

It's our old friend the Canadian Pharmacy.

Write to the Canadian Ambassador about it. If a million of us did that, they might do something about these load of crooks besmirching the name of Canada.

High Commissioner
Canadian High Commission
1 Grosvenor Sq
London, W1K 4AB

020 72586600‎

Yahoo

 

Most of the fraud, I've had lately have been sent by Yahoo customers.

At least Yahoo have their spam priorities correct, then!

10/10 For Virgin Wines

 

I received some spam e-mails that had been sent on behalf of Virgin Wines.

I wrote a letter to complain and got a good apology from them immediately.

I shall certainly be buying product from there.

A New Daily and Weekly Spam Record

 

When I started detailed counts in August 2007, the weekly figure was 61,629.

Last week the weekly figure was 200,036, which is a rise of about three and a quarter times.

The daily figure for Saturday was also 36,357.

What are governments doing about it?

Fuck all!

PerfSpot

 

This social networking site claims to be whiter than white. So why have I had a lot of spam trying to get me to visit the site?

Spam Blogs

 

I'm now getting a lot of spam, which is based on a blog, usually Blogger.

This is a typical one.

Cheap Apple s0ft: iWork, iLife, .MAC etc.

http://sheenahayerkr.blogspot.com

No extra prices for shipping, only downloadable s0ft, right at your desktop.

http://darcynorfolkgt.blogspot.com

There is more than a 40% discount!

Surely, Blogger and their parent Google, should put in extra security. But then look at GMail.

Van Dough Klykes

 

What a load of old tosh this one is?

It may not be fraud, but there will only one winner; Mr. Klykes. A very unlikely name.

The twit can't spell either! What a tosser!

Hello,
Van Dough here with some information about my newest
home business that offers a tremendous opportunity to easily
make OVER two thousand dollars per month working just a
few minutes per day.
This is not MLM, recruiting, netwroking, powerlines, downlines,
and all that jazz.
This is a subscription to the most unique ways to make money
that i have ever seen. You can test the waters with as little as $10
and I guarantee, you won't believe how big that $10 bill will explode
when you implement a few of these systems.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS
Or go immediately to: >>> http://www.shmyl.com/bugpson
Thank You for your time and have a great day!

Van Dough Klykes
www.escape-from-job.info

Avandia Alert

 

I've had three of these spams by some sort of Ambulance Chaser.

It just shows how low the US has sunk.

Get Six Get Another Free

 

Spam messages last week were a total of 124,111 of which 4,380 were to my proper e-mail accounts.

This week so far the figures are 123,985 and 4,191.

So for the six days of this week, we've had as much as we had the whole of last week.

Crap US Offers

 

I'm getting a lot of these every day now. I think it was because I unsubscribed from one, which of course confirmed my e-mail.

A lot of them say that I subscribed from an IP address in Virginia. I didn't, so they've been passing my e-mail around illegally.

Come on Bush, stop your countrymen sending spam to everybody.

Spam Breaks The 20,000 Barrier

 

Yesterday, that daily level was broken for the first time.

And I suspect it will not be the last.

A New Record for Spam

 

Yesterday was the highest figure ever at 18441 messages.

In other words the United States is still doing nothing to curb spam.

The Changing Face of Spam

 

It is now six months, since I started the new method of collecting and analysing spam.

If I tried to collect all the spam sent to daisy.co.uk, jamesmiller.com and all of the other domains I use, it would be a nightmare, as I get upwards of 13,000 messages every day. I may be sad, but not that sad.

So I just analyse the spam sent to legitimate e-mail addresses in those domains and then split it down into several groups like Banking, Drugs, Gambling, Loans, Pornography, Pump and Dump, Replicas, Viruses and Others. The last group contains all the weird ones of which I have no idea what they are about.

Note that all of the graphs in this topic can be clicked and you will see a full-size version in another browser window.

Average Monthly Spam

This graph shows the average number of spam e-mails I've received every day from August 2006 to the 19th of January 2008.


As you can see it has risen alarmingly. In just under 18 months, the numbers I have received has gone from about 3,000 a day to around 14,000.

So why has this alarming increase not been raised in the media?

Probably because Internet companies have been able to grow to accommodate this traffic and also because governments and especially the US government have done little to halt the tide of spam.

Percentage Good Addresses in Spam

Here, I show the percentage of spam I received that goes to e-mail addresses that I have used.


Typically, many of the e-mails I get are to e-mail addresses that have been made up by computer programs run by spammers. The reason is that spammers get paid to send e-mails by the million, so it is easier to create bogus ones than find genuine ones.

You will notice in the graph, that this percentage was decreasing, but this process seems to have stopped and may have reversed.

Perhaps they have made up enough addresses.

One side effect of made-up e-mail addresses, is that many companies bounce e-mails that don't exist, so this creates more unwanted e-mails which generally go to another legitimate organisation, whose e-mail address has been spoofed to send the original e-mail.

So one spam message causes a chain of unwanted messages.

Percentage Weekly Banking Spam

We all get quite a few e-mails that are trying to obtain your bank account details.

This graph shows the percentage of this type of e-mail that I get to legitimate e-mail addresses.


These tend to go up and down a bit and they are not as high a percentage as they used to be a couple of years ago. Most these days seem to be for NatWest, who I would never bank with, in case I was fooled.

You do wonder though how much fraud they create?

I think that the banks may make the situation worse, by generally paying out if there has been an on-line fraud. They should only pay out if the police take a formal statement and put all of those defrauded in a database.

Why should I say that?

In on-line gambling, there is quite a bit of poker room fraud, where two people working together use a stolen credit card to upload money, lose it from one individual to another and then withdraw it.

Are crooks doing that with on-line banking?

One puts a fair bit of money into an on-line account and generates a proper persona with the bank. Then his Internet friend in Ruritania withdraws it all, whilst his friend is on holiday or better still in hospital.

I suspect the bank would refund the cash.

If these e-mails didn't exist, then there would be much less chance of illegal withdrawals.

Percentage Weekly Drugs Spam

This type of spam makes up the majority that I receive.


As you can see the level of this type of spam varies between about forty and sixty percent of all of the spam e-mails I receive. It has perhaps risen slightly over the sixth months I have been doing this detailed analysis.

Contrary to popular opinion it is not all about Viagra. But perhaps seventy percent is about this type of lifestyle drugs, whilst the remainder is general drugs aimed almost exclusively at the American market. Many of the sites that do this type of promotion are based in Canada and are there because drug prices in that country are lower than the USA.

So again, it is the USA that must get its act in order to cut the level of this type of spam. But then the US Government must act against the drug companies, who benefit on the one hand from high prices and on the other from the sales in Canada.

Everybody, who has tried to reform the greedy American healthcare system has failed, so I doubt that we'll see any reduction of this type of spam.

Depressing isn't it?

Percentage Weekly Fraud Spam

This type of spam is one where crooks are trying to entice you to part with your money for various fee fraud or 419 scams. (419 scams are named after that part of the Nigerian penal code. Enough said!)


What seems to be happening here, is that the fee fraud ones, where you collect cheques for companies and then pass the money to a third party after deducting a percentage are declining.

Perhaps people are getting more sensible and just laugh at them. I hope so.

There is also the fact, that they are annoying legitimate companies, who are involving law enforcement agencies and hopefully there has been a degree of collar feeling.

But the 419s keep coming! I didn't realise that there was so much money unclaimed in bank accounts!

Percentage Weekly Gambling Spam

Here the spammers are promoting gaming sites. They are a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned, as I only deal with reputable sites like Betfair.


There seems in the chart to have been a big push at the start of December. Could this be because the US government had stopped access to what I would consider are legal gambling and poker sites based in reputable jurisdictions?

So protectionist legislation and tactics brought in by the US moves the punters into the hands of crooks.

Percentage Weekly Loans Spam

This type of spam is where the spammers are promoting loans to people who have desperate credit problems. Did I hear sub-prime loans?


Note how they went quiet with all of the problems of the sub-prime market and now that finance has dried up for the people who took these loans, the loan spam has started again.

I would have thought the best way to get your house reposessed would be to take out a loan promoted by a spammer.

Percentage Weekly Pornography Spam

Pornography and especially child pornography, is quoted by many as the reason the Internet should be banned.


Note that the level rose around mid-October, but typically it is of the order of a few percent. None of these contain an image larger than about a 100 x 100 pixels and the number that are promoting child pornography is extremely small. (I have had about ten or so in the period of this analysis. None had images, so I just reported them to the Internet Watch Foundation and then erased them.)

Percentage Weekly Pump and Dump Spam

Pump and dump scams are those where you are encouraged to buy worthless shares, so that others can make a killing.


In this graph they show a fairly steep decline from about ten or twelve percent to virtually nothing.

Why?

Because the SEC in the USA has a very strong policy of suspending shares mentioned in these scams.

In other words, action can work.

So why is the US not taking action in other areas to stop spam?

Percentage Weekly Replicas Spam

This group includes replicas of expensive watches and other luxury goods.


The graph shows that this spam increased in the run up to Christmas and the New Year and has now started to fall back.

That illustrates to me, that spammers are not mindless, but target their rubbish to where the weak may break and buy their crap.

Percentage Weekly Virus Spam

This group is composed of messages that try to get you to download viruses. The messages are characterised by IP addresses and teasing messages.


The graph may or may show that this type of spam is declining, as it does tend to turn up in bursts.

But whenever you get it, never download it.

Percentage Weekly Others Spam

This group contains everything else.


Note how it has declined.

Could this be because spammers are concentrating on spams that work?

An interesting point is that a sub-group of spams that are unreadable as they are in Russian, Japanese or other non-Roman languages appears to have declined.

Conclusions

There are some main conclusions that can be made :-

1. About 60% of spam is drug-related.

2. A large proportion of spam is aimed at customers in the USA.

3. When action is taken at a government level, as the SEC has done in the case of Pump and Dump scams, the spam can be seriously reduced.

4. Spammers change their pattern of spamming according to circumstances.

But above all, it is about time that the US got its act together on spam and acted against US companies involved in the process.

Bolotocard

 

I am getting a lot of spam e-mails promoting something called a Bolotocard. I won't give the link here as I don't do that for products that are advertised in this way.

They come from an organisation called CIP-A Marketing at 1276 North Main St, Miami, FL 33132.

I have tried to unsubscribe using the link at the bottom, but I just seem to get more of the spam.

Spam and the US Elections

 

I’d be interested in hearing the various candidates opinions on Internet spam. It’s gone up three times in the last year and about 90% is either from the US or aimed at the US.

J Willard

 

The idiot who spammed me with the Tesco Gift Cards, is now promoting loans in the UK.

Get from £300 to £1000 deposited directly into your account!!!!

Get the cash you need within 24 hours or less!

ALL applications accepted, only a 1 page form.
NO credit checks and FREE to apply!!

J. Willard
2202 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90017

This points to a company called UKCashLenders.co.uk.

Now I'm not an expert on loans, but I do wonder if it would be worth dealing with a company that has been mentioned in a spam e-mail.

Tesco Gift Vouchers

 

This is definitely spam judging by the e-mail addresses and why would Tesco use a such a system. They also have an address in California.

Get a £150 Tesco gift voucher!

J. Willard
2202 S. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90017

I've had nine of the little darlings. I also had another 48 in my spam trap.

It seems to be linked to a company called e-PayDay.co.uk or FreePay.com.

The latter claims that "Freepay.com is an independent rewards program and is not affiliated with any of the listed products or retailers."

In other words it's a spammer at best and a fraudster at worst.

This is the registration address for e-PayDay.co.uk

297 Kingsbury Grade #D, PO Box 4470
Stateline
NV
89449-4470
US

Cyberlover

 

Scambusters are always a good source of early warning on new scams. This morning I received this from them about a new product called Cyberlover.

So watch out.

A new class of bots (software robots) have found their way onto online dating forums, and we predict this is just the beginning of a new class of scams that will probably grow very fast.

These programs mimic online flirting with the goal of getting victims to provide personal information.

The first of these programs is called CyberLover.
Unfortunately, CyberLover is good enough at automating its chat so that victims have a hard time recognizing that it's an automated robot rather than a real person.

Further, CyberLover can establish up to 10 "relationships" in 30 minutes. That means that scammers can use this software to automate the scamming process: rather than having to spend time themselves, they can unleash this software to find hundreds or thousands of victims at a time.

CyberLover can be used for financial and identity theft, as well as leading to "personal" websites that deliver malware.

Currently, CyberLover is targeted at Russian dating sites.
However, it won't be long until we see similar bots in other countries (probably next month).

Action: Always use common sense. Don't provide financial or other personal information. And be on the alert that you may be flirting with a robot. ;-)

Christmas Day

 

I can't fathom this one out, but I had a lot more spam on Christams Day than any other since I started taking detailed counts.

Have they nothing better to do?

merrychristmasdude.com

 

This is an attempt to get you to download malicious software, so that spammers can use you to send spam.

Don't open any of these e-mails.

This website tells a lot more.

The registration details are :-

Registrant ID: P4DHBN0-RU
Registrant Name: John A Cortas
Registrant Organization: John A Cortas
Registrant Street1: Green st 322, fl.10
Registrant City: Toronto
Registrant Postal Code: 12345
Registrant Country: CA

Administrative, Technical Contact
Contact ID: P4DHBN0-RU
Contact Name: John A Cortas
Contact Organization: John A Cortas
Contact Street1: Green st 322, fl.10
Contact City: Toronto
Contact Postal Code: 12345
Contact Country: CA
Contact Phone: +1 435 2312633
Contact E-mail: cortas2008@yahoo.com

Why don't you phone the number above and wish the dude a Merry Christmas?

The Beach Bum Club

 

I had several of these e-mails.

I have unsubscribed to see what happens.

It may not be fraud, b ut I doubt anybody will make any money from it.

This Automated system is putting over $10,000 in many students pockets EVERY WEEK.

Right now, you can discover how to benefit from leveraging the power and momentum of ~ Inner Circle ~ and create massive Streams of Income for yourself.

http://thebeachbumclub.net

I have decided to open my ' Reverse Funnel System ' to the public for a limited time. This could be the Breakthrough you have been waiting for. Get yours before it is too late.

http://thebeachbumclub.net

I am absolutely convinced that my proven System will create massive wealth for virtually anyone regardless of your background your education or even your current level of income...

I'm going to PROVE it.

Ty Coughlin

Korean Spam

 

Yesterday, I got several e-mails like this.

This is the website seen on the news and 60 minutes. http://eiavalue.com/

They pointed to various web sites, all of which were dead and registered in Korea.

Does anybody have any idea what they are about?

Christmas is Coming

 

Over the last week, the number of sites promoting replica watches and other luxury goods has increased significantly.


From averaging around seven or eight percent for some months, in the last week the amount of spam in this class has risen to about thirty percent.

The amount of drug spam has reduced a bit, but loans and "pump and dump" have dropped to a low level. It just shows how the spammers change when they find something more profitable.

Is UK Ready For New Nuke?

 

I've had a lot of these today. They point to a website that doesn't exist.

Ignore them.

DATAMONITOR: Is UK ready for new nuke?.

Released : Thursday, November 15, 2007 2:18 AM
RDATE:15112007
London -- Whether the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was the catalyst or not, since around the time of that fateful day, nuclear power has fallen largely from favour as a means of generating electricity. Since 1990 news of nuclear power plant closures have outweighed those of plans for extending the life of current plants or indeed building anew. While some countries, France and Finland for example....

Selling Illegal Drugs On-Line

 

I'm getting a lot of spam selling illegal drugs on-line. So it's mainly pot, but I can bet that no-one is doing anything about it.

We sell Pot online

click right here

Musical Pump and Dump

 

We now have musical pump and dump. There is a small mp3 in the e-mail, which gives you a rendition of where you should waste your money.

Is this being clever? Or is it the last throw of a desperate group?

Let's hope it's the latter.

Alexey Tolstokozhev

 

It is being reported that Alexey Tolstokozhev has been shot dead in Russia. He is supposeed to be a spammer, but he's not known on Spamhaus.

If he is responsible for a lot of spam, then we'll see the levels drop in the next month or so.

I'm not holding out much chance.

Porn Up, Loans Down?

 

Porn related spam is typically between two and six percent of the messages I get.

But yesterday it was sixteen percent.

Is this a blip or a new set of rubbish?

I also haven't had any loan spam for the last few days. I suspect with all the problems of housing loans in the US and the UK, that no-one is responding to it, or if they do, they can't get anybody to lend the money.

Wrong! - The loans are back again this morning.

Porn though is still up, as is casino related crap.

Your Envoy may be due for a 33000 Kilometer Service

 

I thought at first this was fraud, but it's so rediculous, that it must be genuine.

I would never buy an American can anyway, due to Bush, capital punishment, the spam they send me etc. etc.

Dear James:

According to our records, your Envoy may now be due for a 33000 Kilometer Service:

Our trained technicians will change your engine oil & filter and perform all the recommended maintenance listed in your owner's manual as well as inspect other safety related components. Proper maintenance with genuine factory parts helps keep your Envoy operating at peak performance.

For additional information or to schedule an appointment, please call us at 306-525-5211 or to schedule an appointment online click here: schedule appointment

I hope you are enjoying your Envoy.

Sincerely,
Darah Gusal
Service Manager
Capital Pontiac Buick Cadillac GMC
service@capitalpontiac.ca
306-525-5211

Stop Smoking

 

I've just started getting Stop Smoking spam. I had eight today.

At least that load of spammers are a bit ethical. But only a bit!

The Rise and Rise of Spam

 

This graph shows how spam has risen and risen since August 2006.

No comments are necessary.

Loan Spam

 

This is a typical loan spam.

Note that it says that interest rates are at their lowest point in 40 years. I thought there was a bit of banking crisis.

Dear Homeowner,

Interest Rates are at their lowest point in 40 years!

We help you find the best rate for your situation by matching your needs with hundreds of lenders!

Home Improvement, Refinance, Second Mortgage, Home Equity Loans, and More! Even with less than perfect credit!

This service is 100% FREE to home owners and new home buyers without any obligation.

Just fill out a quick, simple form and jump-start your future plans today!

Football Downloads

 

Well not real football, the stupid American variety.

Don't click the link as it's a virus download.

Life as we know it is back, NFL season is open.
Get all the information you need for every game.
Stay informed for every game with our free game page:
http://81.23.98.120/

Another Record

 

Yesterday, the daily spam record was broken again.

It was 14611.

Over fifty seven percent of the identifiable spam was for drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Anatrim.

All Web Site Owners Should Use This

 

I'm very suspicious of this innocent looking message. It links to a page defined by an IP Address. It could be something that downloads a virus.

When you get messages like this that don't use a sensible web site and also ones signed like this with Simon, but from an e-mail address named Tim, don't click them.

Hi,
Do you own a web site?
If so would you like a web si