Brents IT Blog

Random thoughts by an IT GOAT

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SPAM: Its annoying, its usually lame and its back with a passion.

Not only have spammers redoubled efforts to spam the crap out of forums, comment boxes and email; now the nigerians are back!  Course i cant say for sure its the nigerians, but the emails are pretty text book.  Did they lose access to the internet for a year or so or did someone fix their virus ridden computers?

Here is one i got recently titled "URGENT CHARITY ASSISTANCE.":

"Dear Beloved,

Please I will appreciate you read the content of my email with understanding and don't feel sorry for me because it is the destiny of everyman to die someday.
I am Mr. Abdul Haleem a naturalized Kuwait by birth and a business merchant based in the same Kuwait. I have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. It has defiled all forms of medical treatment and right now I have only about a few months to live according to medical experts. I regret that I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone (not even myself) but my trade. Though I am very well to do, I was never open handed; I was always hostile to people and regarded them like they never had hopes of becoming as successful as myself. Now I know that there is a lot more to life than just prosperity. I believe that when I am given a second chance to come to this world, I would live my life a different way from how I have lived it. Now that death is eminent, I have willed and given most of my belonging to immediate and extended family members, as well as a few close friends.
I want God to have mercy on me and accept my soul. Hence I have decided to support charity work; this is what I want to be remembered for. So far, I have been able to reach out to a few charity organizations in the Singapore, Algeria and Malaysia.
Now that my health has deteriorated so badly, I cannot do this myself anymore.
I once asked members of my family to aid me in giving of alms to those organizations catering for the less privileged in Bulgaria and Pakistan ; they refused and kept the resources to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seem not to be contempt with what I have left for them.
The last of my belonging which no one knows of, is the huge deposit of Twenty Eight million US Dollars that I have in a safe keeping in a financial security company abroad, which I will want you to secure and bestow to charity organizations.
Please endeavor to reply me via email (abdulhaleem01@gmail...com) for your time and devotion; I have set aside 20% of this for you.
God be with you.
Abdul Haleem."

Oh poor abdul!  what will i ever do!  Heres my bank account number for you to transfer funds to!

Seriously!  Get a life dude.  Make money the correct way and stop trying to rip stupid people off.  Course while i say this.. i also say... stupid people should be parted with their money.  Nah just kidding, they should just sit on it until someone comes along who is smart enough to tell them how to spend it... or they could just use one of the many reputable investment groups out there.  With a little research anything can be had.

Oh, BTW:  Lets not forget the virus spammers!  Here is another one i keep getting lately titled "APPLICATION FOR SUITABLE SURVEYORS JUNE
":

"Please Read The Attached Proposal Carefully And Fill In The Application If Interested

Thanks
Fredick Smith"

Sure because i was looking for a job and i would be happy to open attachments from people i have no idea existed!  Oh and what a creative name to boot! 

No, i will not open your attachment and yes my anti-virus has already flagged it.  Heck, MS office flagged it before my anti-virus.  Why isnt my ISP filtering it at their mail server, send me the email and let me know the attachment was removed because it contained a virus.  You already let me know it was spam... why not go one step further.

I cant say i see a spike at the office, the charts really dont reflect it, though they do reflect a steady stream of rejections.  Rejections are based on our graylisting service, all mail servers are blacklisted until they send an email to our servers twice.  Once that second email hits, they are then graylisted and mail is allowed through.  This is perfect because 99% of correctly configured mail server try again at a later time.  95% of spam servers do not try a second time.. or atleast within the 5 hour window.  I love it, it cuts spam to users inboxes by atleast 85% as of right now.  When i first turned it on, i would get it 1 or 2 a day at most.  In the past few months the number has increased, but still not enough to cause much stress.

Ahh but alas, they are back.. and it seems here to stay until we kill their connections again.  So batten down the hatches and turn those filter settings to high... its going to be a busy year!