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Saturday, May 3, 2008

Happy Birthday Spam!

posted by on May 3 at 8:48 AM

Spam reaches 30-year anniversary!


The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC - a now-defunct computer-maker.

The message was sent via Arpanet - the internet’s forerunner - and won its sender much criticism from recipient…

…Statistics gathered by the FBI suggest that 75% of net scams snare people through junk e-mail. In 2007 these cons netted criminals more than $239m (£121m).

Statistics suggest that more than 80%-85% of all e-mail is spam or junk and more than 100 billion spam messages are sent every day.

The majority of these messages are being sent via hijacked home computers that have been compromised by a computer virus.

RSS icon Comments

1

Happy birthday Spam? Happy birthday Sam! (Sam M., that is).

Posted by bemaha | May 3, 2008 10:21 AM
2

I'd say it's closer to 99.99 percent. Virtually all email is spam now. And the fucking sold-out scum in the legislature (US and state) protect and enable spammers, claiming that it's good for business and that doing something about it would be an unconstitutional restraint on trade. BOLLOCKS. The cost to business of fighting the fucking torrent of the stuff is enormous, many times the amount the criminals -- many of whom operate perfectly openly right here in the US -- make.

Motherfuckers. Motherfuckers. I motherfucking hate the shitbrown bastards with every fiber of my being. I could kill Alan Ralsky with my bare hands, easy, no problem, and no nightmares.

And the botnets that distribute most of the stuff are an even bigger threat to global security than nuclear materials, but no one in the government gives a shit.

Posted by Fnarf | May 3, 2008 10:26 AM
3

Sadly, Fnarf, very few people have even heard of the word "botnet," much less have any clear understanding of what they do or how they do it. And oh, BTW, 99%? Really? Mine's probably 1% or less, and the junk filter gets most of that.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | May 3, 2008 10:55 AM
4

@2 I'm with you about the botnets. I know just enough to be worried but not enough to explain to others why it's a threat.

Unsolicited spam sucks but what I hate are my otherwise reasonably intelligent friends sending me those damn chain e-mails. "Send this e-mail to five friends and see your luck double. Ten friends and your luck will triple. If you don't forward it by tomorrow your luck will run out."

Posted by PopTart | May 3, 2008 11:03 AM
5

Fnarf, how do you figure that botnets are a bigger threat than nuclear materials? DDOS attacks?

And kids, no need to get your panties in a knot over spam. Just do what I do (because I'm leet like that):

1) Get a domain name with hosted POP3, like fnarf.com, for like $4/mo from godaddy.com or an equally crappy host (check)

2) Set up your "main" address, like franf@fnarf.com (check)

3) Only give that address to your friends/family (seriously), and use it as your Reply-to if you're feeling daring. If you're replying to something questionable (why are you?), you might consider setting your reply-to to something like questionable-company.com@fnarf.com

4) NEVER, I repeat NEVER, let your "main" address appear on the web in plain text. This generates the vast majority of spam.

5) Last but certainly not least, whenever you register for something online, make up a unique email for that site to use as your registration email. I usually just use the domain name so I can recognize it later, like amazon.com@fnarf.com

6) If questionable-company.com then turns around and sells off your email address to spammers, all the spam will come to questionable-company.com@fnarf.com and you can put anything sent to that address directly in your Spam folder (and tell your friends not to use questionable-company.com!)

7) If spammers start "guessing" emails like common-first-name@fnarf.com, just block those on a case by case basis. Making your "main" address guessable could be problematic. That's what spam filters are for, though.

Of course, I've had this system in place for almost a year now, have registered on easily a hundred websites, and I get zero spam. It's all about keeping your address off the web first and foremost. Stranger staffers? They're fucked.

Something tells me you already do this, though, and you're just getting pissed over wasted bandwidth causing higher internet prices and making your porno download slower. To that I can relate.

Posted by w7ngman | May 3, 2008 9:23 PM

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