I don’t know about you, but I’ve been inundated with spam lately. I’ve seen an increase of spam on Twitter. I’ve been hit with a wave of LinkedIn-related spam (via email), and due to switching Web hosts and having my spam filter settings reset in the process, my inbox has been completely flooded with all kinds of spam.
I think spam today is actually a bit more interesting than old school spam. Sure, I still get the emails about male enhancement products and from make believe Russian brides (I think spammers forget that women use email too — those attempts don’t work on most of us). So today I want to share a few things I’ve noticed about the spam that does get through filters, and how spammers are trying harder to get your attention — although hopefully not succeeding.
1. The “re:” spam.
This kind of spam annoys me greatly. The subject line is set up to look like a reply to a previous email you sent. It tends to get through spam filters more than other general spam types from what I’ve seen. It’s still easy to identify once you actually look at it. But these are tougher to mass-delete because you don’t want to accidentally delete genuine replies alongside them. Therefore, you go through them a bit more slowly, and the spammers get what they want — more of your attention.
2. The “photos of your wife” spam.
I received a spam message with that heading recently (and ironically a colleague tweeted about receiving the same thing that day). I’m an unmarried woman. So I didn’t see “photos of your wife” and have a shock-based reaction that drove me to open it and its attachments. But I could see that kind of shock headline hitting a non-spam-savvy married man like a ton of bricks, having him open the attachments expecting to see something awful. And he probably would — just a virus rather than pictures of a cheating spouse. It’s kind of scary, but you really have to be able to keep your cool while reading email these days apparently.
3. The “@reply” Twitter spam.
If someone spams you on Twitter via a direct message, you can report them and delete it. But Twitter spammers are getting smarter. Maybe it’s just my account, but I’ve seen an increase in @reply spam recently. They leech onto a keyword and auto-reply to spam you with a link, or they just go through lists tweeting the same marketing message to everyone. The problem? You can’t delete @replies like you delete spam DMs, even after reporting the person for spam and having them automatically blocked. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if @replies went “poof!” when someone was blocked? After all, the point of blocking someone is that you don’t want to see what they have to say and you don’t want them involved with your account in any way, right?
4. The “resume” spam.
I’ve received a major onslaught of resume-related spam over the last week. The subject line usually just says “resume.” There is an attachment — supposedly of a resume. Some act like they’re applying for a job vacancy you advertised and some ask for feedback on their resume. I really can see how people could get sucked into opening these ones. The only reason I didn’t is because about ten of them came through at once, so I knew something was fishy. But I do often get students in my industry or readers of my blogs asking for similar advice and feedback via email. And if you run a business and you really did post a job ad recently, I can see how you might assume it’s safe to open. HR folks — just another reason to insist on specific email subject lines from applicants, and have them post resumes in-email rather than as attachments.
What about you? Have you seen a surge in any particular type of spam? Have spammers been getting better at making their spam look more legit? Are they catching your attention at all? Share your thoughts in our comments.
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I hate to be a pedant, but I feel compelled to point out your incorrect use of “ironic.” Your colleague receiving the same spam as you is, if anything, coincidental–not ironic at all.
On the subject of spam, though, I recently had the (mis?)fortune of receiving an amusing variant on the Nigerian Prince scam. The message didn’t start that way, though; it began as a critique of a graphic design I’d just completed. The transition was sudden, to say the least:
“[…]which is more appealing to my eye, if I may say so. I personally would have avoided complementary colors. I HUMBLY REQUEST YOUR ASSISTANCE IN TRANSFERRING MY CONSIDERABLE INHERITANCE[…]”
The scammers are getting smarter, it seems. But not by much.
That would depend on expectation. I would argue “ironic” is an acceptable term in this case. We do have the coincidental element of another colleague getting the same spam on the same day. But we also have the contradictory element of that same message going to two females (completely defying usual expectations). However, I don’t believe I mentioned the colleague’s gender in the post, so for that I apologize.
As for the spam you received, that’s indeed interesting. I receive a lot of them, although I have yet to see one starting off with a design critique. I tend to get spam from SEO firms with minor critiques trying to sell services (where they clearly don’t even look at the site). But fortunately that’s the good old “give us money” variety of spam rather than the hyped up “we’ll give you money” variations.
I just wish filters would get smarter at the same speed as spammers sometimes.
That would depend on expectation. I would argue “ironic” is an acceptable term in this case. We do have the coincidental element of another colleague getting the same spam on the same day. But we also have the contradictory element of that same message going to two females (completely defying usual expectations). However, I don’t believe I mentioned the colleague’s gender in the post, so for that I apologize.
As for the spam you received, that’s indeed interesting. I receive a lot of them, although I have yet to see one starting off with a design critique. I tend to get spam from SEO firms with minor critiques trying to sell services (where they clearly don’t even look at the site). But fortunately that’s the good old “give us money” variety of spam rather than the hyped up “we’ll give you money” variations.
I just wish filters would get smarter at the same speed as spammers sometimes.
Yeah … these are more advanced tricks , the other loto or msg from or reply from are history … as most of the guys they catch those real quick …..
The reply ones still make me look twice every time. Because I’m dealing with both clients and contractors who work for me, I really can’t afford to miss their messages. I’m so used to seeing “re:” and automatically knowing it’s an email I should look at that it’s difficult getting used to the massive amount of spam coming to me in this format now.
The reply ones still make me look twice every time. Because I’m dealing with both clients and contractors who work for me, I really can’t afford to miss their messages. I’m so used to seeing “re:” and automatically knowing it’s an email I should look at that it’s difficult getting used to the massive amount of spam coming to me in this format now.
Ha… Theses are great. I have even received resume spam as of late on my blog! Sorry, but if you can’t figure out that your resume doesn’t go in the comment section of my blog, you probably are not going to do well here.
Still my favorite is the “Norbit” spam. It’s such a unique name that my initial reaction was to reply and tell them they had the wrong email address…. But I found a few more for dear “Norbit” right after that. I even tweeted to “Norbit” that I was getting his email and a few friends replied that they had some of Norbit’s misplaced emails as well.
But despite these dirty tactic, you can actually learn a little bit about dirty marketing in general. Using emotional triggers, building imaginative pleasant scenarios, or even playing off people’s charity and love for others to donate to loss causes. Good samples of dirty and effective tactics.
Oh wow. In email is one thing, because at least it can appear targeted to people in my situation. But why on earth would anyone think resume blog spam is a good idea? I mean, isn’t the end desire of a spammer to get results? If you’re so far off base, how do you expect to get click-throughs and other conversions anyway. Was it at least an in-comment resume rather than posting links to something potentially malicious?
Oh wow. In email is one thing, because at least it can appear targeted to people in my situation. But why on earth would anyone think resume blog spam is a good idea? I mean, isn’t the end desire of a spammer to get results? If you’re so far off base, how do you expect to get click-throughs and other conversions anyway. Was it at least an in-comment resume rather than posting links to something potentially malicious?
Just get Gmail. The spam emails still come but about 99% of them are picked up in the spam filter.