Seriously, WTF Google?

I don't get it, I don't understand how the world's top search engine company and creator of such techno awesomeness can not stop clearly obvious spam from landing in my Gmail in-box every single day.

Does Google really think that I know anyone who's name includes the word "Viagra"?

But what is worse is that there is no simple mechanism for filtering these stupid spams because the Viagra part isn't the sent from email address, its the name in the quotations and the sent from address is, invariably, my own email address which it would be stupid to filter out.

But I can't filter out the quoted sender? Why not?

And I can't just make a blanket filter that scans all email for Viagra and deletes them sight unseen? Why not? This isn't rocket science, or maybe it is, I don't know, I'm not a coder. But it doesn't seem like it should be rocket science. It seems like it should be pretty basic to filter garbage away.

I'm still a very big fan of Google, I like what they do, I like how they do it but this irritating oversight on their part is, well, irritating. Kind of like when they changed how iGoogle home pages were rendered with the ridiculous nav gutter on the left taking up precious screen real estate. No matter how many complaints they've gotten, they didn't allow users to change it back to the tabs. So I've had to install a flippin' Firefox extension to make it the way I want.

Maybe that's the solution with the GMail problem? But it shouldn't be. I shouldn't be looking to third parties for solutions that Google has to be aware of and just hasn't done a damned thing about.

Its dumb and annoying and that's a really short sighted way to treat your customers.

Perhaps Google's mantra should be amended to read "Don't be evil or stupid" but they'll need to work on that second one before they can own it (remember the total fail of the Buzz rollout with no privacy controls? woopsie).

Looking Up to See the Gutter

What kind of a lowlife loser becomes a spammer? Or, worse, a forum spammer, someone who spends their time going from forum to forum sending "personal messages" to people in the pathetic hope that they'll click the link that sends them to a mal/spy/ad-ware site brimming with viruses and other digital nasties?

Of course they aren't doing it because they think they are the scum of the earth, though maybe some do and they relish being the lowest form of life on the ladder.

If there were no financial incentive then that would weed out the vast majority of the jackasses. There would probably still be some griefers that get their jollies by pissing in other people's cornflakes but there will always be trolls and douchebags like that. It is the people that do it as their living that really annoy me.

One of the people I follow on Twitter got something like 220 spam comments on his blog yesterday morning. To what end? Those comments get deleted, the IP's used to leave them get blocked and yet there will be hundreds more today. It is an endlessly frustrating cycle of annoyance, persistence and jackassery.

Also, I'd like to understand how GMail is able to block 99% of the spam I get and Yahoo Mail is able to block maybe 20%? Seems a little ridiculous. Especially when many of the spams have the exact same message sent from the same person. No wonder Yahoo continues to circle the drain, Google does what they do better in almost every way. If Google ever gets into the fantasy sports game then it'll be lights out on Yahoo for me completely.

Simple Protective Measures

There are an awful lot of people on the internet that don't know some basic mechanisms to protect themselves from identity theft online. So I thought I'd share a few.

Spam is garbage or snake oil. Do not ever respond to it. Don't reply, don't click links and don't ever, ever, ever buy something from spam. At best you are supporting a grey market. At worst, buying from spam infects your computer with malware or spyware, turns your PC into a soldier in a zombie computer army, makes your cat lose her hair and gives the spammers more reasons to keep spreading their annoying and badly spelled spiels. Do Not Respond to Spam. Ever.

Phishing - this is an attempt by a scammer to get you to click a link in an email and go to a site that looks like your bank or Ebay or whatever the flavor of the day is, enter your personal information or update it and then they own you. There are several easy things to do to prevent this from happening.

Here are some things you can do to better protect yourself:
- Don't click links in email. Period.
- Type the url of the site in question in the address bar and go there under your own direction.
- Remember that banks and Ebay and other sites will never, ever, ever require you to submit information based on an email.
- Put your cursor over the link but don't click it. See where it is about to direct you in the status bar at the bottom of your browser window (note, you may need to turn this on under the View menu).
- Use FireFox.
- One thing that phishers do regularly is forget to spell check their spam. Banks and other reputable companies do not email badly spelled missives. Misspelled words are a pretty clear indication that its a phishing attempt.
- When in doubt, call the "sending" company and ask them if they sent it (of course, don't use any contact info contact in the email for this).
- Check which email address the email is sent to. I use specific email accounts for specific uses, if I get a bank email to my intellectualpoison.com account, I know its fake.
- Similarly, check who sent it. If the name attached to the email bears no resemblance to sender then its a good bet that its a scam/phishing attempt. Honest people do not feel the need to hide their identities.
- Use Gmail. Google puts alot of effort into identifying scams and letting users know about them. They can help head off most attempts for you. Yahoo Mail, by contrast, appears to have no filter whatsoever and delivers nearly every piece of crap to my in-box.
- If the offer is too good to be true then it probably is.

If you take most of this advice to heart then you are unlikely to fall prey to a phishing attempt and/or spam marketing. If there is no market, i.e. nobody falls for it, then spam will die off. The only reason there is spam is because people keep falling for it.

Yoda is Spamming Me

Taking a page out of the Like Yoda You Must Talk playbook.... today's head scratcher spam:Confused yet?

Beware the Chinese AdWords Spam Attack

Keep an eye out for a well put together spam that appears to be from Google AdWords requesting you go and update your info so they can cut you a check.

It looks like Google sent it but if you check the link in the email, its got a .cn domain on the end. Dot CN is China, of course, and I recently read an article about a McAfee survey (i.e. take it with a big grain of salt) that claims 11% of all domains ending in cn are spam, hoax or otherwise dangerous to the general internet user. That's #2 behind sites ending in .hk which are dangerous nearly 20% of the time.

Anyway, keep your eyes out. And follow the basic rules of email, don't click links in email if you can just as easily go to the site in question directly.

When Spam Wins a Click

I got a spam in my work in-box that was sufficiently funny to warrant a click through to read it. It was another boner pill spam trying to sell generic viagra and other pills that make your pecker sproing to full attention.

The subject line was: Upgrade Your Penis

Maybe its just the tech in me but I laughed out loud. Got any funny spams lately? Share them in the comments.

The Newest Lame

I just deleted a comment on my most favorited picture, the one here. The reason was because it was a throwaway comment he posted solely so he could post his stupid ass pet collar customization site.

That's right, there are idiots now trolling Flickr and spamming photos there.

Why Spam Now?

Had you noticed how little spam there was lately? I was down to maybe two messages a day in my Yahoo and Gmail in-boxes.

And then, over the last couple of days, the volume has climbed back up. Twenty-five in Yahoo, 16 in Gmail and its not even 7:30 yet.

I guess the spammers were on summer vacation or something.

Best Spam EVAR!

Sometimes spam is pure comedy gold. Like the one I got this morning, which has quickly become my favorite of all time.

It was sent by the ECONBOMICAL FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION with a subject line: BEWARE OF INTERNENT FRAUD STAR THAT HAVE BEEN SCAMING YOU(MONEY)

Econbomical is my new favorite word followed quickly by internent.

And no, I did not read the spam message contained within though I'd guess its more comedy gold but I'm getting up in years and don't think my funny bone could handle the overload.

I should read it? Okay. You want to read it too? Brace yourself because it may permanently warp your Englishes. The only changes were to the formatting since it was already crazy over long. I especially like that the only non-all caps text is the name of the commission.

Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)

EFCC HeadQuaters,Abuja,Nigeria.
Tel:+234-xxxxxxxx.

GOOD DAY,
FIRST WE INTRODUCES THIS COMMISSION, Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) WE FIGHT CYBER CRIME FRAUD SCAM MONEY LAUNDERING IN AFRICA.OUR COMMISSION HAS BEEN IN EXSITANCES SINCE 2004.

OUR DUTIES IS TO STOP INTERNET FRAUD SCAM. AS FOR TODAY WE HAVE PUT ALOT OF PEOPLE FRAUDSTERS BEHIND BARS ALOT OF THEM ARE IN JAIL WE GO ALL OVER AFRICA TO PICK THIS THIEF'S.

WE HAVE OVER 687 OF THEM IN OUR JAILS ROUND AFRICA AND WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR MORE, WE ARE AWARE THAT A LOT OF FOREIGNERS OUT THERE HAVE BEEN DECEIVED TRICKED AND LOST A LOT OF MONEY. TO THIS FRAUDSTERS AFTER PROMISING YOU PERCENTAGES IN THEIR LETTERS FOR YOU TO HELP THEM MOVE FUNDS AT THE END OF THE DAY THEY WILL COLLECT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FROM YOU MAKING YOU A POOR PERSON.

ALL THE AFRICAN CRIME FIGHTERS LEADERS HAS COME TOGETHER TO INFORM THE WORLD WHAT IS GOING ON NOW AND WE HAVE RECOVER OVER $322 MILLION DOLLARS(THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS) FROM THE PEOPLE WE HAVE BEHIND BARS. THE ONLY REASON WE ARE WRITING YOU THIS LETTER, IS BECAUSE YOUR NAME WAS GIVEN TO US BY ONE OF THE FRAUDSTERS IN OUR JAIL HOUSE, THAT HE COLLECTED MONEY FROM BY TRICKS.

OUR ACTION NOW IS TO REFUND BACK MONEY TO FOREIGNERS WHO LOST MONEY TO THESE THIEF'S. WE ARE PAYING BACK FROM THE MONEY WE RECOVERED.

WE CAN ONLY REFUND YOU IF YOUR NAME IS MENTIONED AND YOU SHOW US PROVE OF HOW MUCH YOU LOST.IF THIS LETTER GETS TO YOU THEN YOU ARE MENTIONED. BUT IF IT’S GETS TO YOU BY MISTAKE AND YOU HAVE NOT LOST ANY MONEY THEN PLEASE DISREGARD IT.

IF YOU KNOW ANY PERSON FAMILY OR FRIEND THAT HAS LOST MONEY TO FRAUDSTERS PLEASE TELL HIM/HER TO WRITE TO THIS COMMISSION WITH PROVES AND WE WILL HANDLE HIS/HER CASE THEN PAY BACK AFTER VERIFICATION.

WE ARE AWARE THIS FRAUDSTERS HAS BROKEN ALOT OF HOME, MADE ALOT OF PEOPLE TO LOSE THEIR JOB, SELL THEIR PROPERTIES, CLOSED THEIR BUSINESS, PUT MANY ON THE STREET, AND MADE ALOT TO EVEN LOSE THEIR LIFE. PLEASE YOU ARE TO REACH US IN OUR EMAIL ADDRESS ABOVE FOR FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS ON HOW YOU ARE TO RECEIVE YOUR LOST FUNDS YOU ARE TO FORWARD YOUR FULL PARTICULARS AND RECENT TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS TO OUR EMAIL ADDRESS ABOVE ON IF YOU ARE A VICTIM.

REGARDS
ALHAJI KOFFI WILLIAMS
DR. VICTOR PAM AND OTHERS
(CHAIRMAN EFCC).

Ouchie, that hurt to read.

Confirmation of a Suspicion

You know, I've always had a distrust of Gmail and I've now had it validated in the course of trying to get Disk Warrior 4.0 delivered. They strip emails with zip attachments as a matter of course in the war against spam. Which is a problem if I'm expecting and need that freakin' zip file.

I am all for fighting spam but not at the expense of my legitimate email.

I've often thought that my Gmail sent emails aren't being delivered or are being tagged as spam and trash canned. I sent an email to my extended family a little while ago and didn't get a single response. Which tells me that my family doesn't like me very much or that the Gmail address doesn't get through.

So I guess I need to figure out a new email system because I can't have my mail getting blocked by a spam filter either coming or going. I appreciate the thought but the reality is that it makes my life alot more difficult and I don't need more difficult, I need easier, smoother and less hassles.

Oh yeah, the tech support guy at Alsoft (who was very helpful) let me know that I will likely not be able to recover all of my data on the dying/dead drive. Great! At this point, I want as much as I can get.

Has anyone else had problems with Gmail blocking or getting blocked?