Tag: spam

The RedHat of Drupal

The RedHat of Drupal

Matt Mullenweg shares a piece of hilarious SPAM he received.  This. Is.  CLASSIC!

I apologize for the cold email. I was researching Automattic , Inc. and wanted to ask you if there was any gaps/pains within your CMS and website. I work for the “Redhat of Drupal”, (Acquia) and we have seen an explosion of Drupal use in the Media, News, and Entertainment Industry.

Some companies using Drupal/Acquia include Warner Music, Maxim, NBC Universal, and NPR.
If you are evaluating your current system or are looking into new web projects, I would love to connect and discuss Drupal as an option.

Would it make sense to connect on this? If there is someone better at Automattic , Inc. to speak with, perhaps you could point me in the right direction?

Money scam via Skype

It’s been a long while since someone tried to scam me online.  But today I got lucky.  Someone knocked at my Skype door and I opened it.  Here is the full transcript of the conversation.  Pardon me for having some fun in the process.

[2:26:57 PM EEST] micheal2455: hello
[2:27:06 PM EEST] micheal2455: how are you

Before, when most of my online friends were technical people, a username with numbers in it pretty much guaranteed that you are talking to a spammer or scammer of some sort.  But in recent years a lot of non-technical people got online and all bets are off.  So, I allowed a person in.

[2:27:09 PM EEST] micheal2455: my name is micheal ofori,a regional manager of almal bank limited i discover a domant account what of 5.6MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS.Iam looking for a honest person who can help me to move this money out of were i kept it in self keeping custdy.i agree to give you 20% for your mutual help.i do not want my c0-worker to raise eyebrow toward this fund.

That’s a very standard, direct, to the point, proposition.  That’s all you need to see to know with absolute certainty that you are being scammed.  You have two options from now on.  Either end the discussion immediately and block the person from every talking to you again, or try to scam them back, for fun, and see what they have to say.  I’ve chosen the scam path.

Continue reading Money scam via Skype

Spam Clock shares shocking numbers

Spam Clock runs the counter of the SPAM websites that were created since January 1st, 2011.  The data is provided by blekko search engine.  And the numbers are staggering.  Every hour a million of new SPAM pages is created. And there I was, thinking that we mostly have a problem with email, where, any ISP in the world will tell you, SPAM messages account for roughly 99.99% of all emails.

Via Download Squad.

SPAM : It should be opt in, not opt out

Cyprus Mail reports that environmental commissioner turned his attention towards piles of SPAM – advertising leaflets distributed by numerous companies to people’s house, mailboxes, and cars.  The initiative to regulate this is very welcome.  However:

Theopemptou insists that a law should be passed to regulate leaflet distribution in streets, cars and post boxes in order to protect the public and prevent the pile-up of waste. One possible measure he recommended was the creation of a special stamp that people could put on their cars, which would indicate that they do not wish to receive advertising material.

I think that SPAM should be opt in, not opt out.  In other words, it’s the people who WISH to receive the advertising leaflets should indicate that they want to, not the other way around.  You can see how well it works in email vs. RSS and Twitter.  In emails, people just send you loads of junk with an option to unsubscribe from it.  First of all, you already received the junk. Secondly, you need to receive the junk to get an option to unsubscribe.  That’s just not fair.   It doesn’t work.  Opt out.  In RSS and Twitter it’s the opt in.  You don’t get anything until you actually subscribe or follow.  Which is all up to you.  And that’s how it should be.

Dear Mr.Spammer

Dear Mr.Spammer,

you are the ugliest and stinkiest piece of human trash, abusing the technology, annoying people, and occupying their valuable time with your silly activities.  Please stop. Now.  If you feel like  you have nothing much else to do, feel free to go to the darkest corner of our  planet, and die!  I hate you.  People hate you.  Computers hate you.  The universe hates you. So, pretty please, with sugar on top, cease to exist.

P.S.: None of your comments will make it to my blog.  Thanks to Akismet, Gmail, and PHP and Perl.

P.P.S: I really hate you very much.