Sticking it to me (Spam of the day)

Today I received the following email in my work inbox. Three times.

In the body of the message it indicated (and I thought):

You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers. [No, I did not, but do continue.] Microsoft respects your privacy. [Really? Since when?] If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. [Yeah, right.] This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. [Hmm. Then what is the point of clicking the aforementioned "unsubscribe" link?] This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. [That's for the best.] Prices and item availability subject to change without notice.

Looking at the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the message, it pointed merely to the MSN homepage. Not a special page, just to the homepage. Specious.

And what, pray tell, was so important that this purported MSN email needed to alert me about?

A link to: "Free Video Nude Anjelia Jolie"

Wow. I'm not sure who this Anjelia Jolie is, but it's quite fortunate that this sender found a nude video of her. Typing her name into Google comes up with 1,370,000 hits, and those are all redirected for the far better known Angelina. Before this Anjelia hits it big, I can have the chance to see her naked.

Looking at the properties of the link, it points to an .exe on an server with only an IP address. Hmm. That sounds more like a rather paltry attempt at running a program to install a virus.

And who would be so insistent about wanting me to see this other Jolie as a scam to infect my computer?

Me.

The sender was attributed to my old work email address (before we changed domain name), one that hasn't been in use for years.

Yeesh. I hate it when I do this to myself. At least I was apparently clever enough to get the message past the spam filters. But I wasn't smart enough to get myself to fall for it.

~

Update: Tuesday, July 22, 9:35 pm
I see from my site metering that since posting the above last night, it came up in Google searches from Pennsylvania, Romania, Denmark, Philippines, and right here in California. Clearly my old work email is still working hard, getting the word about this Anjelia around.

Hey! (Hey!) You! (You!) Get out of my email!

Last week I got an email from a site that promotes concerts. I've received them many times before. I never did business with them but I got on their list somehow, but I don't object so much that I will do anything more than delete the message after glancing at it.

The message is HTML-formatted, with pictures of each act above the artist name and the date and location of the show, and links to purchase tickets. They concerts are listed in rows of four, and in my Yahoo mail browser only the first row displays.

Last week's message came up thusly:
Yes, all four pictures on the first row were of Avril Lavigne, spotlighting four concerts ranging from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

If ever there was a need to warn the reader of something in the subject line, it is that upon opening the message one will be subjected to an onslaught of a Canadian snot popster. That should require agreeing to continue at an initial prompt before getting it delivered.

That's the one good thing about Outlook over Yahoo mail: Pictures get blocked.

Spam subject line of the day

As with the previous spam message subject lines I've spotlighted, this one had something that made it stand out. I tout this one because of its honesty.

[SPAM] BUSINESS PROPOSAL

It's so considerate of this spammer to properly identify the nature of the message. I almost bothered to read it.

But I didn't. That's not what this recurrent feature is about.

Spam subject line of the day

Another interesting amalgamation of our language from the spammers:

The reticent of mockingbird

As always, this syntax is the completely unmodified text caught by the spam filter. At least, this is one without any typos, and, unlike most of the rest, one that is still G-rated.

Spam subject line of the day

The spammers insist on continuing to send me these messages and the filtering software continues to keep them from my inbox, but sometimes the syntax of correctly spelled, actual English words is too intriguing to let go unmentioned. Here's the best one from today:

To atop to marsupial

As with the previous posts about this, it's not quite intriguing enough to actually read the message.
That is likely to reduce the entertainment value, and why would we do that?

Spam subject line of the day

Today's most inexplicable arrangement of words in the subject line of a spam-filtered message:

chives headwind


Almost intriguing enough to make me actually read it, but I wasn't hungry at the time I checked my mail.

Spam subject line of the day

Spam filtering keeps these unsolicited emails from my inbox, but their subject lines can still prove a source of entertainment. Here's the best one from today, exactly as it appeared:

Trust us your sexual problems for fast solving them


No, I have no interest in actually reading the message--that would only detract from the enjoyment. It could never live up to the expectations.

(I only pray that the syntax of that line doesn't cause sexual problems.)