It has been a while, as I have had a wee shift and returned to my roots in two ways – I’ve moved back North to work at McCann Erickson and I’ve also returned to my Project Manager roots.  So now I’m doing much more practical things and will be sharing them on this wee  blog, as well as my usual ramblings about new technologies and interesting digital happenings I want to waffle about.

I’ve been looking at some practical advice to share about creating email campaigns that don’t hit the spam box, so here is what I can share that I’ve learnt and are good to share with novice email developers:

• A professionally designed email with the correct HTML code throughout will ensure your email looks its best in all browsers and you will avoid high spam scores for bad coding.
• Make sure your email doesn’t have any missing or redundant code.
• Don’t miss out the email title.
• Spell everything correctly.
• Ensure your email is not created solely as images. This is a well know tool that spammers use to get past content filters.  Try to get a good mix of HTML text and images in your emails for the best results.
• Always send a plain text version with your HTML email to ensure that if the recipient cannot use HTML or is opening it on a PDA or phone, they will still be able to view it.
• Always try to ensure the plain text version matches the HTML version as closely as possible.
• NEVER USE CAPITALS when you don’t have too. It’s even worse when whole lines are in capitals
• Avoid using italics and very large fonts.
• Avoid using non standard colours.
• Avoid forms in the email itself.
• Images accompanied by little or no text
• Very long list of recipients – send out in phased batches.
• Ensure the email address is valid.
• Large or very long messages exceeding a recipient’s limit
• Attachments
• Colored backgrounds
• Large fonts
• Colored fonts
• Messages created with Microsoft FrontPage
• Punctuation in the subject line
• HTML font color is gray, red, yellow, green, blue, magenta or “unknown to us”

• Trigger words or phrases in the body or subject line, such as “click,” “free,” “guarantee,” “limited-time offer,” “urgent matter” (see below).

Common spam triggering words

These are words which you really want to share with your copywriters and tell them not to use as they put the spam bots in a frenzy:

• Dear Friend – either personalise properly or use Sir/Madam.
• Free – Free offer, Free trial, Free application, Free sample, Free access, Free anything can cause spam problems especially when used in capitals.
• No obligation.
• No risk, low risk, risk free.
• “Click here” or “click below”.
• Order now.
• No catch.
• Money back guarantee.
• Click to be removed.
• Have you been turned down.
• Never mention spam or spam legislation in your emails.
• Click
• Trial (our trial product…)
• Dear ….
• Not intended for residents of… (this could be in the disclaimer)
• Bankruptcy (discussing your workout practice)
• Call now (to register for your seminar)
• Limited-time offer
• Full refund
• Save up to…
• Guaranteed
• Cash (as in “the acquiring company agreed to a deal composed of cash and stock…”)
• Millions of pounds (in the verdict or transaction…)
• Income
• Urgent matter
• Potential earnings
• Breakthrough
• Free offer, free quote

I’ve heard Mailchimp is a very good email distribution client, so have a look!

“Your information security program is only as strong as your weakest link” said  Linda McGlasson of Bank Info Security.

“That weakest link is your customer or your employee sitting at a screen, deciding whether to click on that link that popped up in their instant messaging screen, or direct message box on Twitter, or visit that site that offers free ringtones (and malware as a bonus).“

Recently 10 US financial institutions in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin receiving fraudulent text messages or automated phone calls.

On September 28, 2009, the 1st Federal Credit Union of central Pennsylvania reported that it received calls from customers about text messages claiming that their cards were blocked.

Similarly on October 2 phishers sent text messages to mobile phones in the Omaha area, claiming their bank card had been deactivated. Inclded were instructions to call an 877 number to reactivate it. At least one customer lost several hundred dollars.

“Once he changed his PIN, somebody went in and withdrew the money,” said Richard Patterson, president of Greater Omaha Federal Credit Union.

A very convincing automated phone call phishing scam directly named the Liberty Bank.

“Your card has been suspended because we believe it was accessed by a third party. Please press 1 now to be transferred to our security department” the recording, before liting an impressive array of details designed to sound official.

Customers who pressed “1″ were asked to enter their credit/debit card number and personal identification number.

“There will be some losses,” Liberty Bank Vice President Jill Hitchman said. “Charges started showing up almost immediately after our customers gave away their card numbers.”

Of course, Liberty responsibly warns its customers to “never reply to email, pop-up messages or phone callers that ask for your personal or financial information. LIBERTY BANK WILL NEVER ask you to disclose your password or pin”.

Spam works because about one out of six respond to messages suspect are spam survey data by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, an anti-spam trade organization (MAAWG).

A record five million new malware threats were detected in third quarter of 2009 according to the Cloud Security firm, Panda Security. Trojans accounted for 71 percent of all new malware between July and September 2009s bots and other malware are morphing rapidly.

Globally 59% of computers are infected  states Panda.

Obviously we need to keep our viral security up to date. This is why Bank Info Security recommends regular, preferably quarterly, programs to remind their customers of secure banking practices.

The problem is that people are the weakest lin. Even normally cautious people may once in a while press a link they normally would ignore.

Since, most of us are not rocket scientists perhaps give oursleves a reality check. Perhaps we should put ourselves through a similar audit of our email and web habits.

People need to be trained to obtain a drivers license so perhaps we need to begin to train people in the rules of internet safety said Linda McGlasson.

She suggests the first very basic tips:

• Keep your operating system up to date with the latest patches;
• Update your anti-virus and anti-spyware regularly, if not daily;
• Install a firewall on your PC;
• Don’t click on links in emails that are from unknown origins (or known origins for that matter).

A record five million new malware threats were detected in third quarter of 2009 according to the Cloud Security firm, Panda Security.
Trojans accounted for 71 percent of all new malware between July and September 2009. Adware (13 percent) and spyware (9 percent) have also all increased, while traditional viruses and worms have decreased to 2 percent of the total.

SAdly, thw weak lin is still the individual user who fails to apply basic net safety rules or applies commonsense when an impressive sounding phishing scam asks for bank details.

PandaLabs has recorded five million new strains of malware. Most of these were banker Trojans, although adware and spyware have also increased.

“Spyware has increased for the first time this year, rising from 6.90% to 9.16%. Adware however has decreased slightly from 16.37% to 13.13%, yet it was still the second most detected malware category this year” according to the quarterly report.
“We currently receive approximately 50,000 new samples of malware every day, compared to 37,000 just a few months ago. There is no reason to believe that the situation will improve in the coming months,” explains Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs.
There has been a marked increase in malware distributed through spam, social networks and search engine optimization techniques, which draw users to spoof Web pages where malware is downloaded. These exploit topical issues like swine flu, Independence Day, forest fires or Presidential speeches by Barack Obama.
“There is a false sense of security, as users perceive there to be no real danger at the moment. When their computers get infected, they rarely notice any symptoms” said According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, According to Panda’s U.S. computers are infected by the most dangerous malware strains: Trojans, followed by adware, worms and viruses.
The global infection rate on computers rose to 59% states Panda Security. Taiwan has the most infected PCs, with a 69.10 percent corruption, followed by Russia and China at 67.99 percent and 61.97 percent, respectively. U.S. ranks ninth with an infection ratio of 58.25. The country with the least infections is Norway at 39.60 percent.

“Spyware has increased for the first time this year, rising from 6.90% to 9.16%. Adware however has decreased slightly from 16.37% to 13.13%, yet it was still the second most detected malware category this year” according to the quarterly report.
“We currently receive approximately 50,000 new samples of malware every day, compared to 37,000 just a few months ago. There is no reason to believe that the situation will improve in the coming months,” explains Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs.
There has been a marked increase in malware distributed through spam, social networks and search engine optimization techniques, which draw users to spoof Web pages where malware is downloaded. These exploit topical issues like swine flu, Independence Day, forest fires or Presidential speeches by Barack Obama.
“There is a false sense of security, as users perceive there to be no real danger at the moment. When their computers get infected, they rarely notice any symptoms” said According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, According to Panda’s U.S. computers are infected by the most dangerous malware strains: Trojans, followed by adware, worms and viruses.
“This is a clear sign that hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated,” said Corrons.
“Cybercriminals have found news ways to spread their creations, frequently exploiting the latest news stories to launch attacks through social networks, videos, and email. The huge amount of Trojans in circulation is due to the spectacular increase in the number of banker Trojans aimed at stealing user data.”
The global infection rate on computers rose to 59% states Panda Security.  Taiwan has the most infected PCs, with a 69.10 percent corruption, followed by Russia and China at 67.99 percent and 61.97 percent, respectively. U.S. ranks ninth with an infection ratio of 58.25. The country with the least infections is Norway at 39.60 percent.

Spam works because about one out of six respond to messages suspect are spam survey data by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, an anti-spam trade organization (MAAWG).

Although, about 17% admitted it was a mistake, curiosity seems to play into the hands of spammers. Twelve percent were interested in the product or service, and 13% don’t know why they acted on the message. Six percent “wanted to see what would happen.”

The survey of 800 people in the U.S. and Canada who admitted they were not ‘internet experts’ about 80 percent of users doubted their computers were at risk of ever being infected with a “bot.” This is alarming as covertly planted viruses capable of sending spam are responsible for generating much of today’s illegitimate email.

The problem is not limited to email spam. In a recent banking phishing spam atcacking LibertyBank, an automated phone message claimed”Your card has been suspended because we believe it was accessed by a third party. Please press 1 now to be transferred to our security department.”

Customers who pressed “1″ were asked to enter their credit/debit card number and personal identification number. Sadly people fell for it.

“Spamming has morphed from an isolated hacker playing with some code into a well-developed underground economy that feeds off reputable users’ machines to avoid detection” said MAAWG Chair Michael O’Reirdan.

“Consumers shouldn’t be afraid to use email, but they need to be computer smart and learn how to avoid these problems.”

“Bots, or malware running on users’ computers without their knowledge, are responsible for generating up to 90 percent of spam and can also be used to steal personal information or take part in DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks” states MAAWG.  cmsconnect.com  estimates the lost time to be nearly 50 hours per employee and almost $1000 per person per year.

Spam is now major bandwidth gobbling headache for service providers and the growing problem of bot infestations contributing to spam, identity theft and online fraud.

No longer is a spammer the seedy lone money grabbing sneak hiding in the attic. In 2007 “a flood of junk messages was thrown at the e-mail server of the [Estonian] Parliament, shutting it down.” This is why a CMS white paper reccommended country of origin email filtering to reduce spam 50-80%.

As spammers use automated systems to constantly collect email addresses, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year it sometimes seems you are doomed to receive a pile of email 95% promoting MLM and the rest suggesting have such a low IQ that you will give your bank details to a non entity at the north pole.

“Spam is also getting globalised as Brazil, Russia, India and China are among the biggest emerging broadband markets worldwide and as such offer a tremendous opportunity for cybercrime ” states Emirates Business 24/7.

Most  users are familiar with general email-based threats but not necessarily proactively protecting themselves sufficiently.

How will we stop spam when we are such easy targets? Even though 12% claimed they were “very” or “somewhat” experienced with Internet security opened spam before deleting it, while 11% called themselves inexperienced who also opened spam.

Two-thirds used the sender’s name to gauge whether a mail was spam, 45% looked at the subject line and 22% use “visual indicators.” About 3% relied on the time a message was sent to judge if it was legitimate.

About two-thirds considered themselves “very” or “somewhat” knowledgeable in Internet security. While most consumers use anti-virus software and over half said they never click on suspected spam, the survey also found that 21 percent take no preventative anti spam measures.

Yet, 12% of respondents who indicated they were “very” or “somewhat” experienced with Internet security opened spam before deleting it, compared with only 11% of respondents who called themselves inexperienced who did the same.

63 percent would allow their network operator or anti-virus vendor to remotely access their computer to remove detected bots.

Industry analyst Ferris Research, Inc., suggested network operators offer remote bot mitigation capabilities to differentiate their services from competitors. They also suggest refining spam filters based on the specific patterns revealed by the study.

For example, the MAAWG survey found that users between the ages of 24 and 44 are more likely to use email for banking and bill statements, so industry vendors might focus on preventing phishing spam for these consumers.

To combat bot infestations has released a series of strategies used by some of the largest ISP network operators or Common Best Practices for Mitigating Large Scale Bot Infections in Residential Networks (Version 1.0).

The report recommends:

• While protecting users’ privacy, network operators can use tools to detect infected end-user computers, including DNS, scanning the IP space to identify vulnerable computers, and collecting IP traffic information for known command and control addresses.
• Email, phone calls to customers, postal mail and walled gardens are common notification tools.. In-browser messages are considered to be among the most effective methods to alert customers but also can be technically challenging to implement.
• ISPs need to maintain a well-publicized security portal that includes directions for end-user bot removal.

“Bots are a global affliction and these best practices are an important step in educating the industry on the appropriate processes to help protect consumers” said Michael O’Reirdan.

“We’re sharing the experiences of our global membership so that network operators everywhere can more aggressively tackle this problem”

ha ha ! check this spam I got in my email box this morning – it’s a total WINNER! ha ha. these things are so entertaining – I wonder if some people actually fall for them?

Hello,
How are you? i hope all is well with you, i hope you may not
know me, and i don’t know who you are, My Name is Miss Brenda khalifa  i am just broswing now i just saw your profle  it seams like some thing touches me all over my body, i started having some feelings in me which i have never experience in me before, so i became interested in you, l will also like to know you the more,and l want you to send an email to my email address
so l can give you my picture for you to know whom l am. I believe we can move from here! I am waiting for your mail to my email address above. (Remeber the distance or colour does not matter but love matters
alot in life) miss Brenda

You know what? I’ve had enough. Really, I’m at the point now where I have two choices.

1. shut down my fucking email account
2. rant about Fairfax’s spam so hopefully someone will see it and stop it.

I made the mistake of subscribing to The Age’s email news updates some time ago. With the happy birth of my baby, my iphone, I don’t need their spammy email updates anymore. In fact, my email inbox is so beyond capacity struggle town, I’m purging most of my subscriptions. That is of course, not including my emails from mUmBRELLA, Adnews, B&T and selected bloggers. But mostly, I’m stopping the crap that our online news outlets keep churning out.

Well, I tried to stop it. The bollocks that is Fairfax don’t seem to honour my 5 attempts at submitting the ‘unsubscribe’ form hidden on the bottom of their stupid emails. FIVE times I’ve unsubscribed over the last few months. And this is my fucking inbox (less the ones I have already deleted).

spam bots = fairfax

Now I’m no expert in much especially the law, but a simple Google search told me their spam is fucking is not right. ACMA says:

Spam is the common term for electronic ‘junk mail’—unwanted messages sent to your email account or mobile phone. Under Australian law, spam is defined as ‘unsolicited commercial electronic messaging’.

And guess what Fairfax, this is the legal mumbo jumbo:

Legislation against ‘spam’ – unsolicited commercial emails – came into force for Australian companies in April 2004. The law imposes fines of up to $1.1 million a day for spammers

As described in the legislation, an unsubscribe option must be clearly worded and easy to use. A common example is “Unsubscribe: if you no longer want to receive these messages, simply reply to this email with the word ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line.”

Your unsubscribe facility must remain functional for at least 30 days after the message is sent, and a request to unsubscribe must be honoured within five working days. Your facility must also be able to deal with a “reasonable number” of unsubscribe responses to the same initial message.

So, by my calculations, I’ve tried to unsubscribe 5 times. You have continued to send me bollocks emails. Therefor, you owe me $5.5 million. I’ll take it in $20 notes thanks.

That’s not all folks

But, if this wasn’t wrong-town enough, it got better today. I got another email from Fairfax. Sneaky bastards sent it via ‘Fairfax Digital Offers’ so the email slipped my junk protector. Pfft I thought to myself. So I clicked on it. Oh yeah Fairfax, now I’ve had enough.

win with fairfax

Now I’m not blaming Essential Baby. I’m also not angry that I now know September is Prostate Cancer Awareness month. What I’m furious about is that some pretty good brands have now been soured by Fairfax’s spam-non-stopping-stupid-useless-impossibly-unsubscribable emails.

Do Essential Baby know that their relationship with Fairfax includes Fairfax sending emails to people who are actively trying to unsubscribe from them? Do Essential Baby know that by default, they’re kinda breaking the spam act through Fairfax? Do they care?

Yes, I think they would. I really think they wouldn’t want their brand associated with this bollocks.

And as for the reputation of Fairfax, I’m consciously not going to theage.com.au and certainly not clicking on anymore of their spam email. It’s disappointing. They need to fix their digital marketing, and quickly.

I’ll stick to the ABC for now.

And they have an iphone app.

Which works and doesn’t spam me.

What do you think? Would you like to help me spend my $5.5 million? How can I get Fairfax to stop? Has it happened to you?

Attackers, willing to do anything to hijack webmail accounts to boost their spam campaigns, are bypassing the traditional Web login interface page to seek out a backdoor into accounts.

YAHOO !!

Some attackers have targeted Yahoo and are successfully cracking account passwords by focusing automated password cracking scripts on a Yahoo Web services-based authentication application thought to be used by Internet service providers (ISPs) and third-party Web applications.

That was the finding of the Web Application Security Consortium Distributed Open Proxy Honeypot project, maintained by researchers at Breach Security Inc. The honeypot is tracking an extensive series of brute force attacks successfully targeting account credentials of Yahoo email users.

“We’ve known for years that spammers normally go after the highly visible Web interface in brute force attacks and most webmail providers track how many login attempts are made. It’s a good standard practice,” said Ryan Barnett, director of application security research at Breach Security. “But this application is not meant for end users and can validate authorization when people [are] trying to login with no access control.”

Once cracked, spammers can then use the account to conduct more spamming or perhaps more nefarious activity, such as obtaining personal information of account holders. The method enables spammers to understand the geographic location of their activities, making their spam campaigns more lucrative.

Barnett said it is difficult to gauge the size of the brute force attacks, but they have been ongoing. The attackers don’t target a single user account. Since the Web services-based authentication application has no anti-automation defense, the attackers set up automated scripts that cycle through common passwords and possible user names.

“Yahoo has this authentication application on so many sub-domains,” Barnett said. “They’ve got hundreds of these servers and attackers are distributing their authentication attempts.”

Brute force password attacks have been around for years and typically represent the least sophisticated method of breaking into accounts. Barnett said Yahoo has been notified about the latest attacks. The search engine giant uses the Web services authentication application to enable users to type Yahoo passwords into third-party partner Web applications, such as streaming video players.

“We’re only seeing a snippet of data that they’re sending,” Barnett said of the ongoing attacks. “This is just another tactic used by the spammers to expand their campaigns.”

Barnett said the Web Application Security Consortium Distributed Open Proxy Honeypot project went live in 2007. The open proxy server lures attackers into pushing traffic through it. Meanwhile, a mod_security Web application firewall (WAF) monitors and reports suspected attack traffic to project participants.

Therefore, a long and strong password will prevent such a break-in of your account and save you from losing your emails and files from your hacked account.

Read the tips given on how to make a strong password from the PASSWORD section.

I have been using my version of the GB-CF V3 form for a while now but I’ve always come across spam! A college at work has give my a simple PHP script to put into the form to stop (http://) spamming  and report the IP Address:

foreach($_POST as $value){

if(strpos($value,’http’) !== FALSE ){

mail(‘you@youremail.com’,'Spammer Bot Attempt(http) – Sandaig GH www.webaddress.com’,$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);

exit(‘<p align=”left” style=”color:#F00;”>’.$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].’ Has been Recorded – Please do not include any links in this form, thank you.</p>’);

}
};

change you@youremail.com for your email address and change www.webaddress.com for your website.

Test the form here try putting a http:// into any part of the form.

American citizens are being pointed out to the government as right wing extremists(a.k.a. people who disagree with this administration’s radical agenda), and are receiving unsolicited emails from David Axelrod at the White House. Fear is the tactic of this administration. Apparently there is a ‘list’, and the White House is required to keep all information sent to it in emails(including a ‘right wing extremist’s’ email address), and release it to the public record later.

That’s one way to stifle free speech: Spam the email boxes of your opponents with propaganda! As Hitler put it, “If you say a lie often enough and loud enough, people will believe it.”

The White House administration is trying it now, and is ranking itself  among regular low life spammers. Remember what that ‘report spam’ button is for? With any luck, Google will stop them from spamming Gmail users soon!

Get the story from Fox News. Second source from the American Thinker. Third source from Hot Air.

Fornyelig læste jeg at danskerne, er det 3.mest naive land i verdenen, når det gælder Hoaxes eller scam mails.

En hoax defineres på wikipedia som: http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoax

Det engelske ord hoax er afledt af “Hocus pocus” og betegner et forsøg på at narre et publikum til at tro, at noget falsk er ægte. I mange tilfælde indgår et eller andet forfalsket objekt i historien. I modsætning til et almindeligt bedrageri udføres en hoax normalt for et stort publikum og motivationen er ikke økonomisk vinding.

Typisk spiller en hoax, på folks sympatiske og naive egenskaber.

Dvs. det at man vil hjælpe andre, og det at man ikke forhold sig kritisk til henvendelser.

En hoax er 99 % harmløs som regel, og vil bare have det formål, at lave grin med folk.

Oftest er en hoax mail rent kommunikativt bygget op, således at der er en masse understøttende elementer, der gør at folk får tillid til afsender og budskab. Der er ofte reference til nogle høje autoriteter som CNN, Microsoft, McAfee, og så lige også Midt- og Vestjyllandspoliti

Emne: VS: VIGTIG INFORMATION om VIRUS

 Besked fra vores IT-afdeling… Blot til orientering

Fra: ITafdeling@OestreLandsret.dk (Denne er 99 % fiktiv)
Sendt: 23. januar 2009 11:34
Til: + ØL emb Alle ansatte (Også denne)
Emne: VIGTIG INFORMATION om VIRUS

 Kære alle..!

 Til orientering har vi modtaget nedenstående mail fra Midt- og Vestjyllandspoliti. (Her bruges denne autoritet)

Videresend denne advarsel blandt venner, familie og kontakter. (Oftes opfrodres brugeren flere gang til en action – med noget understøttende kommunikativt omkring det at være et godt mennekse eller godt kollega/ven).

I løbet af de næste par dage – forsøg ikke at åbne nogen besked med titlen “POSTKORT FRA HALLMARK”, uanset hvem der sendte den til dig. Det er en virus, der åbner et postkortbillede som “brænder” hele harddisken C på din computer.
 
Denne virus vil blive modtaget af nogen, der har din E-mailadresse i deres kontaktliste. Derfor er du nødt til at advare alle dine kontaktpersoner – det er bedre at få dette budskab 25 gange end at modtage virus og åbne det. (Oftes opfrodres brugeren flere gang til en action – med noget understøttende kommunikativt omkring det at være et godt mennekse eller godt kollega/ven). tit vil du næsten kunne høre scammere elelr hoax afseneren sidde og grine over hvor morsom og genial han er. Det er det morsomme og bizarre der “tænder” ham til at drille andre.
 
Hvis du modtager en mail kaldet postkort – skønt sendt til dig fra en ven – må du ikke åbne den. Slet den omgående og sluk computeren øjeblikkeligt.
 
Dette er den værste virus bebudet af CNN.(autoritet) Den er blevet klassificeret af Microsoft (autoritet) som den mest ødelæggende virus nogensinde.
Denne virus blev opdaget af McAfee (autoritet) i går og der er ingen reparation endnu for denne type virus. Denne virus ødelægger harddiske hvor vigtige oplysninger opbevares.
 
Giv denne advarsel til dine venner. Husk: Hvis du sender advarslen, vil det være til gavn for alle. (Oftes opfrodres brugeren flere gang til en action – med noget understøttende kommunikativt omkring det at være et godt mennekse eller godt kollega/ven). Igen 3 gentagelse her, omkring denne action.

 

Jeg har taget ex. i en mail neden for, og fremhævet de mistænklige elementer, man bør læse. som hovedregl, kan man altid google en mail, med hoad og en søgefrase fra emenet. Hoax kanaler er gode til at få deres sider opdateret ret godt!

Læs mere om hoaxs her: http://www.spywareguide.dk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=45

Internet scams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud

En scam er der imod ofte af lidt alvorlig karakter, da en person prøver at frarøve f.eks. penge eller viden fra dig.

The term “Internet fraud” generally refers to any type of fraud scheme that uses one or more online services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme. Internet fraud can take place on computer programs such as chat rooms, e-mail, message boards, or Web sites.

Internet scams spiller ofte på folks grådighed, eller mangler i deres liv, som kærlighed, penge, eller en slags trussel om noget der kan ske, som rammer folks stolhed.

Dating scams, er blevet ret grove, da der sidder folk rundt om i verdenen der lever af at frarøve penge fra naive ensome sjæle. Russian datings scams er et sjovt eksempel, som jeg måske laver en større blog om på et senere tidspunkt

5FM’s news headlines this morning mentioned that the ANC website was thought to have been hacked this weekend, as it was suddenly filled with “porn ads” – the type that usually spam your email inbox.

I logged onto the site a few minutes ago, but found that all trace of questionable content had been erased. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that content on the site is fresh and engaging (unlike the somewhat stale COPE site, which is not updated as often as it should be – the latest content is at least a month old).

The ANC website is a sign that we may well be moving toward the American and Briitsh examples of good governmental online practice.

Carmen

At work early.  Coffee, check.  Raisin bran muffin, check.  Opening Outlook email…waiting…, check.  Whoa, what’s this?  A half-dozen “business proposals” from London and several people in South Africa who I don’t know are waiting for my “urgent reply” with a bank account number…  Important, I am.

According to a recent survey about one in six consumers have at some time acted on a SPAM message.  Huh?   Don’t they realize this only reaffirms the economic incentive for spammers to keep churning out millions of obnoxious pitches per day.  And now comes Twitter SPAM… designed for all us motorcycle enthusiasts who click the “follow” button to stay in touch.  There are many Twitter pages which are simply redirect links for suspicious activity and/or violate usage rules with ad’s about personal body part enhancements.  You know the ones… “I’m now following you”… then you click the link to validate the person and find 3 updates in as many months, but wait… they are following 2,714 people… if you dare click on the web link up comes a clear ruse with no social redeeming value!

Rather agitated on the last “following you” notice, I was going to report the violation – but, then I thought I’d SPAM the SPAMMERS!  I know… I’ll pose as a 35 year-old single mom (Carmen – likes Cars/Motorcycles and Men – get it?).  I have this wounded bird theory and selected a profile with 4 kids. My oldest son, Ricky, is 16 so he’s taking care of Tabitha, 6, and Billy, 4. My youngest, Jeremy, 3 months, is somewhere around here. He’ll turn up. He usually does.  Since I’m still evolving my faux on-line landscape I’ll evangelize my Fav’s as: “Likes to go on long motorcycle rides in the moonlight…” You see, I’ve got this hot body with money to burn and looking for a guy who doesn’t believe everything he reads!

Twitter Suspension Notice

I’m hip and learned from a piercing article in Tattoo that unemployed spammers spend half their time trolling Twitter and other social networks to try and help or pick up 30-something’s.  So, as Carmen I took joy in making my profile very public. It’s good knowing that a lot of spammers scour these sites looking for hot single moms. I posted my pics from before I had my 4 kids and before the crank took my teeth so, I look pretty good in my profile. Just got an email from an unemployed car salesman in Miami, Florida. He could be the one! But, the businessman from South Africa made a lasting impression with that Queen offer in Benadir.  I had no idea it was so easy to travel to Mogadishu!  Wait, as long as they’re still collecting unemployment benefits in the U.S. bring them on! After I finish this post I’ll head over to CafeMom and surf the boards to see how many people responded to my moonlight ride post. Still looking for a real man to take care of my kids. My welfare check arrives on Friday’s and I can’t wait to buy a new iPhone 3Gs.

What’s my point?  Clearly people on-line are not always honest.  More important though is being careful out there with your information.   In my previous post about how to leverage Twitter I did not reinforce the need to block people who randomly want to follow you… especially if they have suspicious motives.  And finally, in surfing the information on the web its disturbing to say the least. The type of information being shared is pretty scary and I often see detailed information about the person and their family.  Or you’ll see links to Facebook proudly displaying H.O.G holiday photos of the kids including geo-tags of their house location along with other content that could be used to identify them. Some of the things people post makes them look completely clueless or like they are sitting at the computer “tweeting” while their kid festers in a dirty diaper. Are single parents really this dumb? As far as I’m concerned, parents posting too much information aren’t really fit to be parents because they put their families at risk or at the very best look like they are wasting time on the computer when they could be doing something productive…. with their kids!

Have to go now. Billy can’t find Jeremy. He’s probably stuck behind the furnace again. *Sigh* Do I have to do everything around here?

Photo taken at CES.  Full Disclosure: Carmen is a fictional character.  Email or comments about a “ride in the moonlight” is barking up the wrong tree.

All Rights Reserved (c) Northwest Harley Blog

—-Original Message—–
From: “FBI”
Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 1:35am
To: undisclosed-recipients, ,
Subject: THIS IS THE (F.B.I)

THIS IS THE (F.B.I)

http://www.fbi.gov
fbi_cyberwatch@live.com
Robert S. Mueller
Executive Director FBI

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET

Dear Esteem Beneficiary,

Have you receive your fund from the FedEx Courier Service Nigeria? Or from any organization claiming that they have your fund with them? We have been watching every transactions that you made from last year 2008 up till date and you have to know that we are also working to make sure that your fund which is supposed to be delivered to you some days ago can be immediately be delivered to you without any further delay or any kind of excuses.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not want any of our citizens to lose their fund and that is why we have been working every hour on our cyber watch department so you won’t get burnt by this scammers.

We are aware of every payment you have made on the transaction you are into to make the transaction succeed, yet the fund is still held down by the drug law agency and the immigration officer at the airport.

We want you to take note that our special investigation service diplomatic men are the one to deliver your fund of $5.8million to you without any further roadblock agencies.

The diplomatic delivery men are in Nigeria where your fund is originated at the international airport now, as soon as you get back to this email by applying to the instruction that is sent to you, the delivery will take effect immediately.

The payment you are to send now so that your fund can finally get to you is the sum of $400USD for the airport clearance of your fund due to the huge amount of money, and as soon as this has been sent down via money gram or western union international money transfer, the delivery will take immediate effect by the delivery diplomatic men.

You have to stop every transaction you are into and communication with other organization to avoid delay on processing of your fund and wrong contact that is why we at the FBI have email you to warn you that your fund is in Nigeria at the immigration office where the diplomatic men will deliver it to you personally as soon as the payment of $400USD is sent to them.

Get back to us at the FBI as soon as you receive this email.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Robert S. Mueller,
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001, USA

The reason social media hasn’t become a bona fide sales channel is because the majority (if not all) of a social media’s audience at any one point in time – whether its Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter- are not buyers.

This hasn’t slowed the onslaught of social media spammers nor has it slowed them in their efforts to peddle wares to anyone who might be listening.

Social Media Spammers

Una nuova ricerca condotta da Messagelabs e riportata da emarketer.com analizza con dati attuali il fenomeno incessante dello spam via email. Negli ultimi tre anni le email spazzatura sono calate dall’86,2% all’81,2% sul totale della posta elettronica a livello mondiale ma soltanto nell’ultimo mese di Maggio c’è stato un incremento vertiginoso che ha portato la percentuale dello spam al 90,4%. I paesi più bombardati sono stai nell’ordine Hong Kong, la Cina e l’Inghilterra, mentre l’Italia non è presente nelle prime dieci posizioni, al contrario di altri paesi europei come Germania e Olanda rispettivamente all’ottavo e al nono posto. Quasi un terzo dello spam proviene dalla stessa Europa seguita a ruota dall’Asia.

I giorni più attivi risultano essere globalmente il Lunedì e il Venerdì, mentre la Domenica gli spammer sembrerebbero riposarsi. La maggior parte delle mail spazzatura viene generata e diffusa da vari botnet, malware nascosti all’insaputa dei proprietari in milioni di computer sparsi per il mondo raggiunti dalle applicazioni malevoli molto spesso con servizi di client di posta gratuiti, come Hotmail e Yahoo. Un piccolo contributo per arginare il fenomeno potrebbe essere una maggiore consapevolezza di ciò che viene aperto e scaricato online, per evitare di essere noi stessi i messaggeri dello spam.

Sender:  carly3664

If Carly happens to be a friend of yours you may want to discuss with her how to properly construct a contraction.

I believe Carly intended to write ‘won’t', but who knows, perhaps the answer to the mystery lies in the body of the e-mail.  Only time will tell.

Perhaps ‘won’f’ is part of Carly’s genius.   If you really want to grab someone’s attention, no e-mail says READ ME quite like an e-mail with a glowing spelling error in the subject line.  Certainly if they’re trying to sell you something a spelling like that can do nothing but invoke confidence from the reader.

Ah, I’m probably being too harsh, I shouldn’t count Carly out yet, it’s not fair to judge a person based on one spelling error, plus, the subject is so mysterious that I just have to open it, and that means Carly did her job.

Body:  “Unleash your male power”

Well, this was sort of unexpected.  It’s a short that really drives a point home to the reader.  I like that, Carly clearly isn’t one to overuse her limited vocabularly.  She knows her weaknesses, she’s identified that she can’t spell, and she’s adjusted accordingly.

Most importantly, I have never really thought about unleashing my male power before.  I’ve thought about unleashing other things, but not my male power.  In fact, I think Carly has given me the confidence I was lacking and for the first time in my life I do feel ready to unleash my male power.  I think I might eat a raw steak as I write the rest of this.  In fact, I think everything I eat from now is going to be raw, because nothing says MALE POWER like eating raw food.

The lesson – SPAM isn’t just about selling you something, sometimes it’s like a fortune cookie – you crack it open and you learn something special.

Email received @ 17 May 2009 at 9:31PM by melissa@resume-advisers.com

Resume Writing

This is Melissa from Resume Adviser. If you’re thinking about a new or better paying job, Resume Advisers can help you achieve that goal.

We are a renowned resume writing service with the best and brightest recruiter-writers. Our primary goal is to ensure that your resume reflects your accomplishments and makes you stand out as the ideal candidate among equally qualified applicants.

If you are not sure if you should redo your resume, do send it to us and we can review your resume for free.

Today’s job market is very competitive and there’s definitely a strong need to have a professional resume to enhance your career prospects. Resume Advisers offers everything you could ever need to compete for the best positions.

Thank you for your attention.

Melissa Lee

Resume Adviser

International Search Group

6001 Beach Road, #18-01

Singapore 199589

This email is to promote products and services to interested parties. Please help to forward the offer to others who may be interested. We sincerely apologize if you find this email an intrusion of your privacy or a source of inconvenience to you. If you wish not to receive our advertisement or newsletter, simply click reply with the subject ‘Remove’ Thank you.

Lately I’ve been receiving spam mail from my own Gmail address. If you have similar problems or you receive any emails from what you think is a friend, DO NOT click any links provided, even the link that asks you to ‘unsubscribe or Opt-out’ of further e mailings.

For further information about spam on your Google Gmail accounts : http://www.google.com/support?hl=en OR http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=50200

If you use other email accounts, check for the help link somewhere on your email page.

Alan

With a growing list of computer network crimes stemming from Data Manipulation or Security Breakdowns and with the proliferation of Spam, Spyware, Viruses, Worms and Identity Theft growing daily. Never before has the need to keep the average consumer, Aware, Educated and Up-to-Date on the latest issues confronting the ever expanding reach and use of the Internet.

The often confusing and complex nature of these threats poses a challenge in creating the most affective way to communicate safety information that is easily digestible to the general public as well as tech savvy consumers.

From Outer Space to Inner Space.

Through the use of today’s popular animation technology we can “make real” the overly abstract digital world of the Internet and imaginatively demonstrate through pictures what has only been understood thorough numbers.

Welcome to Zyber Space, a universe much like our own but exiting on the quantum level. A colorful tangible universe that consumers can visually grasp and quickly understand.  A universe populated by unusual but familiar landscapes, beings they have herd of but have never seen. A place spanning across computer main frames and network servers every where. A world as vast as our own inhabited by deadly Viruses and Sinister Programs and where our Heroes call upon us to help vanquish them.

Zyber Heroes and the Crusade to Safe Guard the Internet!

Zyber Herose is an entertaining Pro-Social Public Awareness Campaign designed to educate consumers about critical issues of on-line and web security that will appeal to a broad cross section of computer users. The colorful and dynamic personalities of these characters and the world they inhabit will capture imaginations of young and old and effectively educate by delivering the most up to date information consumers need to know in a focused and easy to understand format.

Zyber Heroes will reach far beyond any conventional PSA campaign. This initiative has broad marketing potential with applications for user friendly educational program in schools, libraries, business organizations as well as new and old media outlets.

By creating a whole new pro-social “green” category this kind of program will bring together all members of the high tech and web based business sectors by asking them to contribute to a single effort to improve their business by improving and cleaning up the environment of the Internet.

To find out more about Zyber Hereos contact us at Razorheadsnyc.com bill@razorheadsnyc.com karl@razorheadsnyc.com

Hallo,
Ich ernennt Sandra Amador. Ich bin 21 Jahre alt und ich bin Waise. Mein Vater Adolf Amador war ein Kaufmann Kakao reichen hier in Cotonou in Benin, bevor er vergiftet seine Geschäftspartner bei einem Termin Geschäft.

Mein Vater kümmert sich um mich seit dem Tod meiner Mutter am 21. Oktober 2004. Vor dem Tod meines Vaters am 24. Januar 2009 in einer
Privatklinik in Cotonou, er mich heimlich zu seinem Bett, um mich zu informieren, dass er eine Summe von zehn Millionen Euro auf ein Sperrkonto bei der Bank Atlantique Benin und dass dieses Geld ist mein Erbe. Er hat mir auch mitgeteilt, dass er vergiftet worden wegen seines Reichtums. Er riet mir, nach einem Partner in einem fremden Land meiner Wahl, die ich dieses Geld, um es mir zu investieren.

Deshalb schicke ich Ihnen diese Nachricht, um respektvoll ihre Hilfe. Das Geld wird auf Ihrem Bankkonto und ich komme in Ihrem Land nicht nur für die Investitionen, sondern auch für meine Studien.

Ich bin bereit, Ihnen 15% der gesamten Summe als Ausgleich mehr als 5% für alle Kosten, die Sie ausgeben, wie die Kosten für Telefon und Fax.

Diese Transaktion wird innerhalb von sieben Tagen nach Ihrer Zustimmung zu m’assister.

Danke für mich auf meine E-Mail-Adresse sandramadorbj@gmail.com

Diese Emails sind zwar fast so alt wie das Internet, aber scheinbar gibt es immer noch Menschen die auf solche Geschichten reinfallen und antworten.
Also falls jemand danach googelt und im Hinterkopf schon ausrechnet wieviel Geld er demnächst bekommen wird… löschen! Einfach nur löschen!