strange email spam
John Oliver
They do have English URL links but I'm following my usual policy of
not clicking on links in spam email.
Has anyone else seen these?
--
John Oliver
jdol...@westnet.com.au
AIM or MSN jdoliver98
![m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]'s profile photo](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/default-user=s40-c)
m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]
> In what appears to be Arabic!
>
> They do have English URL links but I'm following my usual policy of
> not clicking on links in spam email.
>
> Has anyone else seen these?
I've received spam in languages, and alphabets, I don't know how to
read, certainly. I generally delete them so fast I don't have time to
figure out which language. ("Viagra", interestingly, is sometimes
rendered in English even when the rest of the message is not.)
But, according to:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/01/MNFH11HHOU.DTL
foreign (non-English) language spam is on the increase. English still
dominates, but French and German are on a rapid rise. (How thrilled
the French and German peoples must be.) With other languages coming
along as well.
So, lucky you, you are at the forefront of a trend!
--
Megan, fount of absolutely useless information
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
Aphrael
> [snip]
> But, according to:
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/01/MNFH11HHOU.DTL
>
> foreign (non-English) language spam is on the increase. English still
> dominates, but French and German are on a rapid rise. (How thrilled the
> French and German peoples must be.) With other languages coming along
> as well.
>
> So, lucky you, you are at the forefront of a trend!
I receive spam in French (my native language) nowadays. Except... it is
like robot-translated French... It is almost funny, so full of mistakes,
sentences that mean nothing or the contrary of what it should, ...
Aphrael...
John Oliver
At least you can read it. I'm guessing the ones I get are Arabic from
the script. But it could be Hindu. Definitely a non-roman cursive
script. Isn't HTML wonderful!
Kat Hein
We get those same "Nigerian" phishing spam in badly translated English
too. :) The same with the Russian porn spam.
Kat
m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]
Are you under the impression that the English versions make any more
sense? ;>
Who buys medicine from idiots who can't spell? sigh.
--
Megan
Edna
Aphrael <aphrael.no...@isuisse.com> wrote:
I used to get German spam, for some reason, but it's been a few years
since the last batch.
Must be the last name :-)
Edna
---|)--- Edna Huelsenbeck (huelsenbeck@gmailDOTcom) ------------
---|---- Goddess of the ABML Out-of-Practice-Musicians Band -----
--/|---- Member, Brute Squad, Mommy Division --------------------
-| |')-- Provisional Member of the Sisterhood of Mess -----------
--\|/----Official Bard of the Book and Bridle -------------------
|
'
Joe Morris
> In article <487d1...@news.bluewin.ch>,
> Aphrael <aphrael.no...@isuisse.com> wrote:
>> m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage] wrote:
>> > But, according to:
>> > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/01/MNFH11HHOU.DTL
>> >
>> > foreign (non-English) language spam is on the increase. English still
>> > dominates, but French and German are on a rapid rise. (How thrilled
>> > the
>> > French and German peoples must be.) With other languages coming along
>> > as well.
>> I receive spam in French (my native language) nowadays. Except... it is
>> like robot-translated French... It is almost funny, so full of mistakes,
>> sentences that mean nothing or the contrary of what it should, ...
> I used to get German spam, for some reason, but it's been a few years
> since the last batch.
If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to share the Portugese and Hebrew spam
that manages to make its way through the (usually excellent) spam filters at
the office. I've been getting both for several years although I speak
neither language.
BUT WAIT! If you respond in the next ten minutes I'll include at no extra
charge the messages I've received which as best I can tell are intended to
be commands to zombie computers. (That's the only reasonable explanation I
can come up with for messages with a body consisting of only 6-character
blocks of apparent gibberish.)
Joe
m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]
> In article <487d1...@news.bluewin.ch>,
> Aphrael <aphrael.no...@isuisse.com> wrote:
>
>>m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage] wrote:
<snip>
>>I receive spam in French (my native language) nowadays. Except... it is
>>like robot-translated French... It is almost funny, so full of mistakes,
>>sentences that mean nothing or the contrary of what it should, ...
>
> I used to get German spam, for some reason, but it's been a few years
> since the last batch.
>
> Must be the last name :-)
More important than the last name is probably the fact that the last
name is part of your email address. So anyone trying <insert German
last name><insert random numbers>@<insert some email domain> spamming
victims would get you.
Sad that I know this. Truly sad.
--
Megan
m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]
> "Edna" <huels...@gmailDOT.com> wrote:
>
>>In article <487d1...@news.bluewin.ch>,
>>Aphrael <aphrael.no...@isuisse.com> wrote:
<spam>
>>>I receive spam in French (my native language) nowadays. Except... it is
>>>like robot-translated French... It is almost funny, so full of mistakes,
>>>sentences that mean nothing or the contrary of what it should, ...
>
>>I used to get German spam, for some reason, but it's been a few years
>>since the last batch.
>
> If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to share the Portugese and Hebrew spam
> that manages to make its way through the (usually excellent) spam filters at
> the office. I've been getting both for several years although I speak
> neither language.
Is there a forwarding email address on your mail server you can use
to tell the mail server that the spam is, in fact, spam? Some spam
filters can sometimes be improved with feedback.
I had to train our spam filters, last time we switched to a new spam
system, to not classify most student email as spam.
> BUT WAIT! If you respond in the next ten minutes I'll include at no extra
> charge the messages I've received which as best I can tell are intended to
> be commands to zombie computers. (That's the only reasonable explanation I
> can come up with for messages with a body consisting of only 6-character
> blocks of apparent gibberish.)
Is that what it is?
I have received spam with blank messages, or nonesense, and I can't
figure out the purpose of sending something that can't possible get
money from me, or anyone.
--
Megan
victoreia
[snip of non-English spam]
> Who buys medicine from idiots who can't spell? sigh.
>
acknowledge the cleverness in getting around some of the spam filters by
using that "alternative spelling" of key words......)
--
victoreia
Goddess of Dark Chocolate
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **
Joe Morris
> Joe Morris wrote:
>> "Edna" <huels...@gmailDOT.com> wrote:
> <spam>
>> If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to share the Portugese and Hebrew spam
>> that manages to make its way through the (usually excellent) spam filters
>> at the office. I've been getting both for several years although I speak
>> neither language.
>
> Is there a forwarding email address on your mail server you can use to
> tell the mail server that the spam is, in fact, spam? Some spam filters
> can sometimes be improved with feedback.
>
> I had to train our spam filters, last time we switched to a new spam
> system, to not classify most student email as spam.
I don't think that I would want to mess with the filter settings; I do get a
daily report from the spam filter (listing the Subject: line and the alleged
sender), and in the years it's been in service not a single message filtered
as spam was anything I wanted to read. Based on the number of spam messages
that get through vs. the number filtered, the accuracy of the tool is
somewhere north of 95%.
The same filter also looks for external mail claiming to be from an internal
sender: e.g., if my company mail account is in the "foobar.com" domain, a
message arriving from the outside world claiming to be from
som...@foobar.com will be blocked. The idea is to block messages which
might be forged to appear to be coming from a trusted internal source.
I have had a couple of false hits here: if, for example, I post to an
external distribution list, the list server will forward my posting (as
author) back to me (as list member) showing my own email address as the
sender.
The other false positive was a message from the Wall Street Journal's
customer disservice department; the idiots there sent me a message in
response to a complaint about lousy delivery (don't ask) and configured
their email server to set my email address as the sender. (This isn't a
supposition; the message headers include a transaction line that clearly
states that the WSJ mail server did this.)
>> BUT WAIT! If you respond in the next ten minutes I'll include at no
>> extra charge the messages I've received which as best I can tell are
>> intended to be commands to zombie computers. (That's the only reasonable
>> explanation I can come up with for messages with a body consisting of
>> only 6-character blocks of apparent gibberish.)
>
> Is that what it is?
No guarantees, but I agree with some of the experts at my POE (many of whom
are internationally-recognized computer security specialists) that this is
the most probable explanation.
Joe
m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]
> "m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]" wrote:
>
>>Joe Morris wrote:
>>
<spam>
>>>If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to share the Portugese and Hebrew spam
>>>that manages to make its way through the (usually excellent) spam filters
>>>at the office. I've been getting both for several years although I speak
>>>neither language.
>>
>>Is there a forwarding email address on your mail server you can use to
>>tell the mail server that the spam is, in fact, spam? Some spam filters
>>can sometimes be improved with feedback.
>>
>>I had to train our spam filters, last time we switched to a new spam
>>system, to not classify most student email as spam.
>
> I don't think that I would want to mess with the filter settings; I do get a
> daily report from the spam filter (listing the Subject: line and the alleged
> sender), and in the years it's been in service not a single message filtered
> as spam was anything I wanted to read. Based on the number of spam messages
> that get through vs. the number filtered, the accuracy of the tool is
> somewhere north of 95%.
I don't think our sysadmin would *let* me mess with the filter
settings. Quite sensible of her. :>
I don't get that daily message. Hmmm.
> The same filter also looks for external mail claiming to be from an internal
> sender: e.g., if my company mail account is in the "foobar.com" domain, a
> message arriving from the outside world claiming to be from
> som...@foobar.com will be blocked. The idea is to block messages which
> might be forged to appear to be coming from a trusted internal source.
<snip>
That's a good one! I've received spam "from me" and I find it darn
insulting. What, the spammer thinks I'm going to be fooled... or buy
anything from someone so obviously practicing deceit?
> The other false positive was a message from the Wall Street Journal's
> customer disservice department; the idiots there sent me a message in
> response to a complaint about lousy delivery (don't ask) and configured
> their email server to set my email address as the sender. (This isn't a
> supposition; the message headers include a transaction line that clearly
> states that the WSJ mail server did this.)
Oh, good grief. Someone was asleep at the switch that day.
>>>BUT WAIT! If you respond in the next ten minutes I'll include at no
>>>extra charge the messages I've received which as best I can tell are
>>>intended to be commands to zombie computers. (That's the only reasonable
>>>explanation I can come up with for messages with a body consisting of
>>>only 6-character blocks of apparent gibberish.)
>>
>>Is that what it is?
>
> No guarantees, but I agree with some of the experts at my POE (many of whom
> are internationally-recognized computer security specialists) that this is
> the most probable explanation.
Oh, I believe it. Zombies are *huge* on the illegal computing
activities front, these days.
Sasha Rowan
"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"
<"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:FOGdneVcTe1c1-PV...@earthlink.com...
>
> Oh, I believe it. Zombies are *huge* on the illegal computing activities
> front, these days.
Must be all the brains they ate in the past decades.
Sasha running --------------------->thataway
@aloha.net Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
"John Oliver" <jdol...@westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:cdip74511ocu8dpu8...@4ax.com...
> In what appears to be Arabic!
>
> They do have English URL links but I'm following my usual policy of
> not clicking on links in spam email.
>
> Has anyone else seen these?
I'm afraid I wouldn't know. I've been following my usual policy of not
even opening anything that puts little boxes in the subject instead of
spelling things out in Roman letters. That's normally a sign that it's in
some strange script I can't read. If I opened it, I'd have a better chance
of figuring out which script it was, but why bother if I can't read it
anyway? {lop-sided smile, wink}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
@aloha.net Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
"Aphrael" <aphrael.no...@isuisse.com> wrote in message
news:487d1...@news.bluewin.ch...
Yup, that sounds like spam alright. {wink, Lop-sided Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
> Aphrael...
@aloha.net Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
<"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:FOGdneVcTe1c1-PV...@earthlink.com...
I get one from Hawaii OnLine, but nothing from either Interpac or
HawaiianTel, the other two providers.
Why do I have three providers? Well, We got HawaiianTel because they
offer the cheapest DSL. I don't really use Interpac, but I still
technically still have it because Dad hasn't gotten around to switching
over and stopping that account. {smile}
I've been using HOL as my public address long enough, it's worth the
money to keep the address so I don't have to change. Besides, I like to see
what the spamtrap catches on my public address, and they're the only ones I
can do that with. Every once in a while, Borders or some other company I
actually don't mind getting ads from decides to change an email. Then it
gets caught until I okay that address too. {lop-sided smile}
>> The same filter also looks for external mail claiming to be from an
>> internal sender: e.g., if my company mail account is in the "foobar.com"
>> domain, a message arriving from the outside world claiming to be from
>> som...@foobar.com will be blocked. The idea is to block messages which
>> might be forged to appear to be coming from a trusted internal source.
> <snip>
>
> That's a good one! I've received spam "from me" and I find it darn
> insulting. What, the spammer thinks I'm going to be fooled... or buy
> anything from someone so obviously practicing deceit?
I don't bother to get insulted. I figure that receiving something from
myself that I didn't send is a particularly clear sign that I can trash it
without peeking to make sure it's legit first. I know it isn't. {amused
Smile}
>> The other false positive was a message from the Wall Street Journal's
>> customer disservice department; the idiots there sent me a message in
>> response to a complaint about lousy delivery (don't ask) and configured
>> their email server to set my email address as the sender. (This isn't a
>> supposition; the message headers include a transaction line that clearly
>> states that the WSJ mail server did this.)
>
> Oh, good grief. Someone was asleep at the switch that day.
Exactly. {look up, Smile}
>>>>BUT WAIT! If you respond in the next ten minutes I'll include at no
>>>>extra charge the messages I've received which as best I can tell are
>>>>intended to be commands to zombie computers. (That's the only
>>>>reasonable
>>>>explanation I can come up with for messages with a body consisting of
>>>>only 6-character blocks of apparent gibberish.)
>>>
>>>Is that what it is?
>>
>> No guarantees, but I agree with some of the experts at my POE (many of
>> whom are internationally-recognized computer security specialists) that
>> this is
>> the most probable explanation.
>
> Oh, I believe it. Zombies are *huge* on the illegal computing activities
> front, these days.
What are zombie computers? {puzzled look}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Grygon
>
I've been getting spam in Japanese and Chinese for a very long time.
There have been days when I open my spam folder and there's not a single
letter in the roman alphabet in sight.
Joe Morris
> I've been getting spam in Japanese and Chinese for a very long time. There
> have been days when I open my spam folder and there's not a single letter
> in the roman alphabet in sight.
Look on that as a special favor to you from whoever sent it: there's no
effort required to determine if it's spam:
IF <non-roman characters in subject: line> THEN DELETE.
Speaking of unwanted email, I hope that over the past week or so nobody here
clicked through the links in messages claiming to be "CNN Top 10 News
Stories". If you did, PLEASE take your system off the net and give it the
most thorough antivirus scan your AV tool permits. The links in the message
do go to CNN, but invoke videos from elsewhere that can exploit security
holes to turn your system into a zombie from which spam and porn can be
distributed.
Joe
@aloha.net Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
news:kbKdnTLJh71GJgPV...@swcp.com...
I think I've had days like that ever since I got a spam-folder to open
separately. {half-smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
@aloha.net Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
news:g7mr2...@news4.newsguy.com...
> "Grygon" <gry...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've been getting spam in Japanese and Chinese for a very long time.
>> There
>> have been days when I open my spam folder and there's not a single
>> letter in the roman alphabet in sight.
>
> Look on that as a special favor to you from whoever sent it: there's no
> effort required to determine if it's spam:
>
> IF <non-roman characters in subject: line> THEN DELETE.
Exactly. {Smile} It's a great time-saver. {BIG SMILE}
> Speaking of unwanted email, I hope that over the past week or so nobody
> here clicked through the links in messages claiming to be "CNN Top 10
> News Stories". If you did, PLEASE take your system off the net and give
> it the most
> thorough antivirus scan your AV tool permits. The links in the message
> do go to CNN, but invoke videos from elsewhere that can exploit security
> holes to turn your system into a zombie from which spam and porn can be
> distributed.
Fortunately, I followed my usual policy of not following links that come
into my mailbox uninvited. Once in a great while, my finger slips while I'm
working my mouse, but it hasn't this time. {SMILE}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin