Got this little fella in one of those forwarded emails that seem to circulate all across the ‘net lately. I don’t know who created the little guy but he’s sure cool looking. Kudos to the original artist whoever you are! 
Sure wish I could draw like that.
I mean, you know the ones…abuse@ somedomain.com or abuse@ somewebhost.com. etc. These are the email accounts that one would send an email to to report any bad behavior discovered about a particular web site or spam coming from some server somewhere.
Well, I tried that the other day because I’d noticed an increase in spam comments and trackbacks and wondered just where these were coming from. So I started clicking on the IP address listed along side each one to discover where they were from. It got interesting.
I had some from Chicago, Amsterdam, Australia, Florida, Texas just to mention a few. Hmm, OK. Let’s see what would happen if I emailed the respective accounts for abuse and reported the spam.
Yes sir! We have more competition in the web mail field now. The company is called GMX and is claiming to have developed the world’s best free web mail service. GMX - Global Mail X-change.
It’s an unfortunate but expected occurance that we’ll be spammed even more this holiday season and there is little we can do about it with the small exception of continuing to be ever vigilant with our spam/virus/spyware measures.
This hot topic I came across from PC Magazine will open your eyes a bit more on the subject:
Spam: An Unwelcome Part of Season’s Greetings
Beware of anything that you don’t recognize the sender’s name from in your inbox. It’s sad but it will help to prevent potentially serious damage to either your computer or your finances.
Remember one thing in particular: “If it sounds almost too good to be true…it most likely is.”
Most of us take email for granted. We just turn on our computers, click on the ‘ol email icon and bingo! it loads and shows us all the wonderful emails from friends all over the world. You know the ones…from the friendly guy at the drug company always looking out for you, the stock market guys, the friends you have in the “red light” district, etc. Yep, simple stuff.
But how the heck did we get all these new “friends” anyway?
Well, many ways actually. Some of them include using one email address for just about everything, one that got sold to a 3rd party for marketing purposes, someone’s PC got hacked and your email address harvested, spyware…the list can go on.
We have many ways to rid ourselves of spam or at the very least, cut it down to a level that’s manageable. But, what exactly IS spam?
According to Wikipedia:
Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited, undesired bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, and mobile phone messaging spam.Spamming is economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.
Ok, now that we know just what it is…how do we rid ourselves of it?
There is an excellent book that talks about the spam issue and ways to prevent it. Brian McWilliams book “sets out to answer in a new book, “Spam Kings: The Real Story Behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements.” McWilliams tells the stories of some of the Internet’s most hard-core spammers and the equally hard-core spam hunters seeking to expose them.” More information about this book can be found here. more…
