Life is a State of Mind » Spam

Spam on the rise again, damn

snolan — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:15:10 +0000

Well it was a lovely Spring, with reduced SPAM on both email and blog comments, but that appears to be over and spam has skyrocketed once again. Groan.

Gah, more illegal robocalls

snolan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:06:34 +0000

The Spanish language robo-callers found my cell phone number again (and I changed numbers to avoid these bastards). The message sounds the same… beginning with “Attention!” – and then kicking into whatever pitch with no identification, no chance to tell them to go to hell, complete disregard to my number being on the Do-Not-Call list and complete disregard for it burning my minutes.

I complained with the FCC again via http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm, for whatever good that will do… sigh.

For me this started on my cell phones in November 2008.

http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/11/20/angry-about-a-new-kind-of-telemarketing

Here is a list of numbers the robo-callers have used (though I suspect every time the phone companies and FCC find then they simply hi-jack a new number):

662-997-9876
218-833-9889
509-362-9996
712-200-8989
775-562-0196
248-758-9138
313-924-7021

Google any of them and you will see hundreds of complaints about each of them, all the same. Some people have gone to great trouble to try to find the spammers.

DreamHost Mail Issues

snolan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:28:54 +0000

If you are trying to send me email today, and get a 554 (Open Relay Detected) error and bounce back, just send again in a few hours. DreamHost is working on it and it is mostly working again.

Angry about a new kind of telemarketing

snolan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:29:38 +0000

I have started getting calls on my cell phone during the daytime that are telemarketing calls. What makes this particularly annoying is that the company or companies have figured out how to spoof the caller-id system into showing what appears to be a legitimate phone number the call is coming from (real examples):

248-758-9138 (called November 20th, 2:28pm)
313-924-7021 (called November 12th, 2:28pm)

They are using disconnected numbers, when you try to call back to read them the riot act for burning up daytime minutes you get:

“The number you have reached is not in service, please check the number and try again.”

Since the sales pitch is itself a recording, there is no way to strike back. I am furious and can only try to get my cell phone provider to no charge me for those calls – but that really does not solve the problem. Essentially the assholes who deliberately misrepresent their credentials when calling you, like those who do the same when sending you email, may make calls and emails equally useless as the noise level grows.

I am thinking of moving to a mountain with no gadgets where people have to come talk to you face to face, and risk having you send your bear to attack them if they are too annoying. There is a special place in hell for telemarketing types who do not clearly and correctly identify their credentials.

Update: I added the second number I was getting called from. It is interesting to note that both calls came in at exactly 2:28pm on business days, both times the caller spoofed a fake number that happened to be a real number that was recently cancelled. Both times the real number appears to have been an individual who is now getting blamed by an angry mob for telemarketing calls they may not even be aware of… Potentially very dangerous. I filed electronic FCC complaints and contacted my provider, but the FCC form is pretty broken and it’s clear they don’t really know how to accept complaints about telemarketers who are being dishonest about caller-id info.

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm (warning, their online form is pretty broken – field jumps back to Information you were able to obtain too often)

Extortion Spam!?

snolan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:40:12 +0000

This is new… I am getting blog comment spam (caught in Akismet filters, thankfully) on my WordPress blog that claims I can stop this particular spamming my blog if I send them an email and some money…. I suggest the extortion minded-spammer not hold his or her breath awaiting my response…

In fact, I am now encumbered with a moral/ethical decision… should I subscribe the address they send me to every spammer and dubious porn site on the planet so they get their own treatment?

Mine is an evil laugh.

Removed the is_human() module

snolan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:55:01 +0000

Though it was a good attempt, the is_human() WordPress module was a failure for me, so I pulled it off my website. It was blocking way too many legitimate comments and did absolutely nothing to address the hundreds of trackback and linkback spams showing up daily.

I am sad, as I had hoped it would help prevent the deluge of spam.

The is_human() filter

snolan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:55:50 +0000

Just a reminder folks, if you are going to comment here, you must answer the multiple choice question displayed as a required field in the comment page.

I am seeing some comments get rejected that look legitimate, because the question was left unanswered.