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Have You Noticed More Spam Lately?

Clients often ask me why their opt-in email newsletters are getting blocked, while emails targeting under-endowed men and promoting penny stocks are getting through.

eWeek, which is become one of my must-reads, has an interesting article about the recent spam surge and finds that much of it is being generated by Russian hackers that are exploiting–what else?–Windows computers.

One thing that’s frustrating is that these hackers are getting email addresses off of infected computers, so that it’s impossible to hide any email address, even if you don’t post it to the Web.

You can read ‘Pump-and-Dump’ Spam Surge Linked to Russian Bot Herders here.

Rich Brooks
Out, bot, out!

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  • http://www.connected-content.com Whitney

    Another irritating spam trick that's started is spam masquerading as the "Undeliverable Mail" or "Message Failure" e-mails that get auto-generated by servers when an account has been shut down or can't be found.

    The first such e-mail that comes in looks like a perfectly legitimate message…legitimate sender, legitimate Subject line. Then you open it, and realize it's spam. That, of course, opens the floodgates and you get a dozen or two copycat e-mails a day.

    Some do get caught by spam filters. Some don't. Of the ones that don't, the messages are easy to spot and tag without ever opening them. Something is clearly off in the sender name, Subject line, or both.

    But every once in a while, one comes through that does *look* legitimate when all you see is sender and subject in your inbox listing. You, however, no longer want to open even these because you no longer trust any of them and know that you risk doubling the spam that comes into your inbox.

    Some people really need to get out and find real jobs.

  • http://www.connected-content.com Whitney

    Another irritating spam trick that's started is spam masquerading as the "Undeliverable Mail" or "Message Failure" e-mails that get auto-generated by servers when an account has been shut down or can't be found.

    The first such e-mail that comes in looks like a perfectly legitimate message…legitimate sender, legitimate Subject line. Then you open it, and realize it's spam. That, of course, opens the floodgates and you get a dozen or two copycat e-mails a day.

    Some do get caught by spam filters. Some don't. Of the ones that don't, the messages are easy to spot and tag without ever opening them. Something is clearly off in the sender name, Subject line, or both.

    But every once in a while, one comes through that does *look* legitimate when all you see is sender and subject in your inbox listing. You, however, no longer want to open even these because you no longer trust any of them and know that you risk doubling the spam that comes into your inbox.

    Some people really need to get out and find real jobs.

Related posts:

  1. Spam Fighting Tools for Mac and PC
  2. Follow-Up on Windows Spam Filters
  3. Yes, Virginia, There is More Spam
  4. How Not to Deal with Spam
  5. How Do I Really Stop Spam?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 24th, 2006 at 10:28 am and is filed under Email Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.