Early yesterday morning, I got a piece of spam. Thinking nothing of it, I deleted it.
Five minutes later, I received a reply to that spam. (Who does that anymore?!) It turns out this spam was special. Rather than send an e-mail out to thousands of people, the spammer instead did something infininitely funnier (in a twisted way): he compromised a mailserver, and set up the recipients as subscribers to a mailing list. Then he sent the spam to the mailing list.
Result? I’ve received at least ten messages per hour from recipients to this spam from people around the globe, complaining about the spam. “Why are you e-mailing me?” “Shut up! “Fuck you!” “Take me off your list or I’ll report you to the authorities!” “Stop emailing me!” “How did I get on this list? I never visited your website.” “I’ve reported this to Interpol.” “Shut up!” “Stop replying to these messages!” “But you just replied.” “You sent me a virus!” “Shut up!” “Who are you and why are you emailing me?” “I’m in Costa Rica, how did I get email from someone in South Africa?” “Shut up!” “Get a Mac!” “Fuck all of you!”
And on and on it goes. (All are direct quotes, by the way.)
What’s perhaps most shocking of all are the domains these e-mails are coming from. How do people who send the above messages get jobs at JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, EW Scripps, Ernst & Young, Patton Boggs? Amazing.
Not surprising at all... I used to work for a rather large IT company, which has an entire practice dedicated to IT Security. And lost count of how many times in the last few years an entire email system in a worldwide basis was taken down by worms spreading through emails - and people opening attachements...
ReplyDeleteThat's just it - this doesn't even involve people opening attachments, it's just the mindless replies that people are sending that crack me up. Wild.
ReplyDeleteI used to work at E&Y (enough said).
ReplyDeletePlease, please, if you get more of these, definitely post them ... my sides hurt!
I work for a large and seemingly respected company, and once or twice a spam to employees all over the country are met with Reply-All responses that fill up my inbox for the next few days.
ReplyDeleteAlso, whenever there is an AOL Instant Messenger virus going around, IT sends us an email, basically saying "if you see a link like the one below, don't click on it" and then, instead of giving details of what the link looks like, they actually put the live virus link into the email.
Rick,
ReplyDeleteCould you email me a few samples and/or deposit one in the Spamroll "Spamples" database? Thanks, and good luck.
Cheers,
michael
I just saw this happen to a company run by a friend of mine. His mailing list totally flooded with the crap.
ReplyDeleteI got around 1,500 emails in the 3 or 4 days it lasted. Here are some quotes, since someone asked for some. If this post is too long feel free to delete it.
"WILL YOU STUPID PEOPLE JUST STOP REPLYING TO THIS STUPID EMAIL. WE ARE GOING ON 3 DAYS NOW AND ITS STILL GOING ON. THE PERSON THAT STARTED THIS IS SITTING BACK LAUGHING THERE ASS OFF AT ALL OF US. NOW PLEASE DO US ALL A FAVOR AND DON'T REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ANYMORE AND IT WILL STOP ONCE IN FOR ALL. WE ARE THE ONES THAT ARE KEEPING IT GOING.
THANK YOU"
"TO EVERYONE WHO IS STILL SENDING E MAILS TO xxxxxx.COM
STOP!!!!!!
All that you are doing is sending your e mail to everyone else who has been infected - Whoever has sent this virus isn't going to take your name off a list or take the slightest bit of notice of your threats - THE ONLY WAY TO STOP IT IS TO STOP SENDING E MAILS TO THAT ADDRESS - IF WE ALL DO THIS IT WILL STOP - ITS NOT THE VIRUS THAT IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM ITS EVERYONE WHO IS SENDING IT E MAILS!!
IF YOU WANT TO STOP RECEIVING E MAILS THEN STOP SENDING THEM - IT'S THAT SIMPLE
Clare McGuinness
Registry Assistant
0113 2837139
C.McGuinness@leedstrinity.ac.uk"
"
WHO ARE YOU???? WE ARE BEING BOMBARDED WITH EMAILS FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!VIRUSS ARE ATTACHED...HELP! CALL YOUR ISP PROVIDER..."
"MAY THE FLEAS OFF A 1000 CAMELS INFEST YOUR ARMPITS "where ever you are"
AND MAY YOUR "NUTS" ROT, AND NOT FALL OFF"
"Please stop or you will turned into the police"
"Please remove my email address from your outlook express and any other place it is found in your records. I have received in excess of 100 emails in the last day.....all referenced back to this company...........your files must be infected by a virus. If I keep getting them ,I will just simply forward them to you. Sincerely....CF"
"I am getting a bunch of emails stating that I have a virus. This is a business email address and I want you to take me off your list.
Sincerely,"
"I want off this damn list as well.
I'll never use your service or visit your website
again.
ASSHOLES!!!"
"I know! I'm getting emails from people I've never meet or much less even heard of...!"
"This is turning into a sick joke - Please stop emailing me. www.xxxx.com is condemned."