Today, I received my first swine flu related spam email (see previous post on the subject). Frobuck E. Acho sent me a message with the title "Office is on quarantine". The body of the mail is faking a health newsletter published by some health institution in California.
That institution, Jbibjhj Health (or is it Gueaami Health, as the "copyright" line suggests?), claims to be located in the city of Zevovumah, CA, which, as it happens, doesn't even exist. So where is that office really located? All the links point to websites in China...
No office, no quarantine.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Niftier web users, niftier spammers
The Language Log recently posted an article about the spammy comments they receive and have to filter out.
What struck me, apart from the volume of spam they get, is that, according to Arnold Zwicky, who's in charge of sorting through the spam at the Language Log, spammers have started putting in a little more effort to sound remotely legitimate. They are going one step further than before and need to perform some data mining to identify and pass for someone from the online linguistics community.
I like the fact that they're trying to impersonate people like John Wells! For those of you who have no clue who John Wells is, he's the author of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, a little bible I used to tote every time I had a phonology class to teach -- until I decided to spare my back and switch to the other bible and its convenient DVD: the English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones. Anyway, John Wells is a very active and highly respected figure in the field of phonetics, phonology and linguistics in general.
Back to my point regarding spam: this new trend probably means that people are more careful before they choose to click on a link, and that spamming is becoming a more difficult job.
What struck me, apart from the volume of spam they get, is that, according to Arnold Zwicky, who's in charge of sorting through the spam at the Language Log, spammers have started putting in a little more effort to sound remotely legitimate. They are going one step further than before and need to perform some data mining to identify and pass for someone from the online linguistics community.
I like the fact that they're trying to impersonate people like John Wells! For those of you who have no clue who John Wells is, he's the author of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, a little bible I used to tote every time I had a phonology class to teach -- until I decided to spare my back and switch to the other bible and its convenient DVD: the English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones. Anyway, John Wells is a very active and highly respected figure in the field of phonetics, phonology and linguistics in general.
Back to my point regarding spam: this new trend probably means that people are more careful before they choose to click on a link, and that spamming is becoming a more difficult job.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Swine flu spam outbreak?
Newspapers are reporting that the swine flu pandemic is giving spammers new fodder to pig out on. See this article from the McAfee Avert Lab Blog, for example.
So far, my inbox has managed to stay safe:
Hope your spam filter doesn't need to wear a mask.
So far, my inbox has managed to stay safe:
Hope your spam filter doesn't need to wear a mask.
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