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Waves of Spam

ziggy on 2004-10-21T13:02:47

I don't pay much attention to the spam that spamassassin doesn't catch, but I do try and pay attention to the trends.

For example, there were the Nigerian spams (which may still be going around for all I know; they were so bothersome and predictable that spamassassin does an excellent job of filtering them out). Then there were the paypal phishing scams -- easy to spot as fraudulent if (a) you know how to spell, and (b) you don't actually have a paypal account.

Then there were the Citibank phishing scams. Eventually they got quite good, and your only real clue is that the mailhost and the redirect weren't Citibank sites, but everything else about the phishing lure looked legit -- and finally didn't include any mispellings or obvious grammar errors. That scam seems to be phishing with other banks as well.

So, today, I notice about half a dozen or so spams offering Rolexes. My only question here is, what happened? Why Rolex spams all of a sudden?

Fashion trends

Dom2 on 2004-10-21T13:27:24

I didn't realise that spam has fashion trends! Or should that be spashion trends?

-Dom

Re:Fashion trends

jmm on 2004-10-21T14:03:53

Since they come in waves, they are splashon trends.

Re:Fashion trends

Aristotle on 2004-10-22T13:39:58

That sounds like a description for porn spam.

Few spammers?

jplindstrom on 2004-10-21T14:13:13

I also receive loads of Rolex spam currently.

Could it be that there aren't that many spammers that stand for the majority of the mail being sent?

Re:Few spammers?

grue on 2004-10-21T14:20:11

Or just that the spammers are completely unintelligent *sigh*

Re:Few spammers?

link on 2004-10-21T15:37:18

I was at the rolex website trying to find out how much one costs( time to buy myself a decent watch but what I'm looking for something 6 or 7 times less decent ). Then I check my mail on Monday and its full of rolex spam. Kinda freaked me out for a sec.

Re:Few spammers?

Purdy on 2004-10-21T14:20:39

You know, one thing that kinda sucks is that the URL's are redirection URL's and not the destination URL. So when you report the spam to SpamCop, it's not getting the root of the problem.

Re:Few spammers?

Aristotle on 2004-10-22T13:46:39

Indeed there aren't. The 80/20 rule is true for spam as well, except the 20 is more of an actual number rather than a percentage. These big fish are mostly situated in the US, and responsible for probably more than half the world wide UBE traffic.

Not Rolex...

bart on 2004-10-21T15:37:02

... but fake Rolex watches. Big difference. One such spam message calls them "genuine replicas watches" — don't you just love their wordplay.

Oh, and another recent trend is to offer expensive software for a low price, typically $50 for MS Office. I once went to take a look at such a site, and their FAQ said something like "this is OEM software" (= can't actually be sold without the hardware) and "you can't register this software with the software manufacturer" which, in case of Microsoft Office, probably means you can't use it longer than a month, or so. Otherwise, the site would have appeared to be legit.

I take that means you get a copy of their CD.