Friday, November 26, 2004

Arrrrrgh, the spammers have found me again!

I thought I'd kept one email account free from junk email - I didnt subscribe to any outside websites, I didnt give my email out as a contact address to anybody but a few friends (on strict condition that they never send forwarded or junk emails there - no matter how funny they thought it was). Naive me, I thought those basic precautions would keep me safe from spam. But no, there's no getting away. Nobody and nothing is safe from those spambots and serial junk mailers! I HATE them! HATE HATE HATE! Grrr

Now I have to spend ages deleting crap emails before I can get down to reading the few genuine emails I get (and very few they are, too... why doesnt anybody WRITE to me any more? It's so petty to not write just because I havent... *sheepish grin*). If I dont delete the crap emails, they accumulate at a horrifying speed and take over all the mailbox space. There's no point putting word filters in, because those b*stard spammers alter the words just enough that the original word isnt recognised (V!AGRA, for instance - very enterprising). There's no point even blocking spam-email addresses because they keep coming up with new ones. What are people supposed to DO?

Man, those junk emails are really something... especially the sort that tell me I can get zonked out on Vicodin or Prozac or whatever, without a prescription. Or those that ask if I want my johnson (well, that's not really what they call it but you know what I mean) enlarged so that I can satisfy "any woman partner". Never mind that I dont personally dont possess a johnson. Or, for that matter, have any women partners.

Do people actually, really get taken in by these spam ads? Would people really part with a few dozen dollars/pounds/whatever currency just because some anonymous seller says the pills/new diet/weight-loss remedy/reproductive-organ enlargers/etc are genuine? Would people really believe the testimony of some anonymous person who swears blind that the product is efficacious? Does anybody actually know of someone who's done that? I'd like to give such buyers this award:

10 comments:

Houseowner said...

oops!shyam, i put my comment on the doodle board! :)sorry...
cheers!
ramya

hari said...

Hello Shyam,

I am Hari from Chennai and I found your blog address from Ramya's. Indeed you have a very colourful blog and hi-tech too. Are you also a computer wizard like Ramya. She is slowly turning out to be one.

Regarding people being taken for a ride by spam mails, i have heard of a few of them spending a few dollars for collecting the prize they had purpotedly won in a lottery etc. So there are some weak minded highly greedy people who do get carried away by such spams, otherwise such an industry would definitely not survive.

Do visit me whenever you find time at:
www.harithehadron.blogspot.com

Harish said...

Well, use their own language, and give 'em right back!

@$$#013 for instance! :) (I learnt this from my friend, didn't realise I'd actually find use for this!)

cheers,

curses

F e r r a r i said...

This is really a big issue. And people send spams to office id. How much ever filter you put, no use :-(

Shammi said...

Rums, no worries, you can leave comments anywhere you like (as long as it's on my blog) :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Shyam....all these 'johnson' er, johnny come lately's aka spammers have actually usurped the internet. At least, the email portion of it! What can we mere mortals do when the Big Boss Bill Gates himself can't do a damn thing about it. Apparently, he has a whole department (7 people, I think, at last count) who take care of his email - meaning, sorting out the genuine from the junk!!! :) Ravi

Shammi said...

Dear Anonymous Ravi ;)

I guess if Big Bill himself cant do anything about spammers, there's no hope for anybody else! Too bad I cant afford to have anybody do my deleting for me... :)

Anonymous said...

guess this explains the absence of a response to my mails (okay, there was ony one, but i am not one to nitpick). must have got deleted with the spam :) - kannan

Anonymous said...

Just got to experience this. Its so bad that I have to reformat the hard disk at my office pc. You think spamming is a big issue? Wait till you get adware and malware into your system. Watch how they multiply and eat into the bandwidth, the moment you connect! Compared to this, spam is easier to handle - all you need is select hall and hit 'delete' - not so simple with worms, trojans, malware, adware et al! :)

Anonymous said...

Just got to experience this. Its so bad that I have to reformat the hard disk at my office pc. You think spamming is a big issue? Wait till you get adware and malware into your system. Watch how they multiply and eat into the bandwidth, the moment you connect! Compared to this, spam is easier to handle - all you need is select hall and hit 'delete' - not so simple with worms, trojans, malware, adware et al! :( Ravi