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The most annoying spam of 2002
BBC News ^ | January 24, 2003 | BBC News

Posted on 01/24/2003 1:21:35 AM PST by MadIvan

Every person on the net has one thing in common. They all hate spam.


E-mails offering Viagra via the net
Anyone who has an e-mail account will have received these unsolicited commercial messages that offer you things you do not want, at prices you will not pay, from companies you will never call.

2002 was a bumper year for these messages and now 30% of all mail flying around the net is thought to be spam.

Filtering firm Surf Control has compiled a list of the top 10 most annoying spam messages sent across the net in the last 12 months.

Message overload

Unsurprisingly, top of the list were messages with a sexual theme.

The most annoying spam purported to pass on to people free passwords for sex sites that usually levy a charge to look beyond the front page.

Spam top 10
  • Free adult site passwords
  • Low price drugs (Viagra)
  • Refinance your mortgage
  • Nigerian confidential money transfer
  • Tiny remote control car
  • Best online casino
  • #1 Pasta pot
  • Get out of credit card debt
  • Meet singles in your area
  • Copy DVDs in one click
Next on the list was a pharmaceutical service offering people the sex drug Viagra.

Also on the list of most annoying spam messages were those asking people to help get money out of various African nations.

These 419 scams as they are called are entirely bogus but regularly catch out gullible net users who let their greed overwhelm their common sense.

Costly business

Surf Control estimates that spam costs businesses around the world about $9billion a year to deal with.

This estimate includes the time it takes people to delete the messages, the cost of buying larger mail servers and storage systems to cope with in-boxes flooded with the messages and the cost of having staff unclog networks overloaded by spam.

There is little sign of an end to unsolicited mail.

Last year, one in 12 e-mails passing through MessageLabs' filter system was identified as spam.

The e-mail filtering company has warned of a dramatic rise in the amount of spam clogging in-boxes

It says the amount of spam will exceed normal e-mails by around July.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: algoresfault; annoyances; annoying; email; fraud; internet; junkemail; junkmail; singingvikings; spam; spameggsspamspam; spamspambeansspam; spamspamdotcom; spamspamnetspam; spamspamspamspam
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Please feel free to list your least favourite spam messages on this thread. ;)

Regards, Ivan


I don't like Spam!

1 posted on 01/24/2003 1:21:35 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: GOP_Lady; prairiebreeze; veronica; SunnyUsa; Delmarksman; Sparta; Toirdhealbheach Beucail; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 01/24/2003 1:22:06 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
Spam probably can't get much more annoying than this:

Hail To The Spammer In Chief?

By Declan McCullagh -- January 20, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

WASHINGTON--Sen. Joseph Lieberman hopes to become the first Democratic president from Connecticut, the first Jewish president, and the first senator to win the White House since John F. Kennedy.

Good for him. Our problem is that Lieberman also is itching to be our spammer-in-chief.

It's no joke. Within hours of announcing his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for the job last week, Lieberman started spamming around a message titled: "Beginning an Amazing Journey." It said: "I have the strength, vision, and values to lead our nation to higher ground."

To broadcast this momentous news, Lieberman used an outfit called Roving Software of Waltham, Mass., which sells a bulk-mail service called ConstantContact. Bulk mailers pay from $10 to about $2,000 a month for the service. Roving claims to occupy a market niche reminiscent of the dot-com boom, describing itself as a "pre-IPO, venture-backed" start-up boasting revenue growth of "more than 40 percent per quarter in 2002."

Link to full article!

3 posted on 01/24/2003 1:28:16 AM PST by AntiGuv (™)
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To: MadIvan
Woman: "How about some strawberry tart?"

Man: "Has it got any rat in it?"

Woman: "Some ..."

Man: "How many?"

Woman: "Three"

Man: "I'll have some strawberry tart with not so much rat in it"

Narrator: "One 'strawberry tart with not so much rat in it' later ..."

Man: "DISGUSTING!"

Woman: "Complain, complain, complain! You never like anything I fix!"

8)
4 posted on 01/24/2003 1:28:19 AM PST by Bobby777
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To: MadIvan
My least favorites are:

Increase your penis length.
Get your university degree in 6 months.
Hot college girls want to meet you now.
Get paid to read email.
You have $$$ waiting on you.

5 posted on 01/24/2003 1:48:52 AM PST by flying Elvis
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To: MadIvan
Hi Ivan. I posted this commentary I wrote awhile back ago, but it will go just fine on this thread.

"ADULT CONTENT" -Commentary by Cindy


Here is the latest disclaimer I have on my "Editor's Notebook" page. The ugly e-mailers have decided to advance their games. I'm sure other people here on FR experience this too.

"A NOTE FROM CINDY to ****.com Readers regarding my e-mail: First of all let me tell you that my e-mail works fine thank you, so please rest assured that I do read your e-mail and send you a no-virus response. Now here's the E-MAIL UPDATE: The bad guys just never give up. They're still sending mail using my e-mail address. I even get some of the return e-mail that supposedly I have sent. I'm not the only one this is happening to. Very sad, isn't it? FYI: None of the ****.com web pages bulk e-mail, have e-mail lists, spam, or are associated with porn and/or other criminal activities. ****.com never signs guest books, solicits for money, does not take money and never will. ****.com never places classified advertisements in singles/sex/porn sites. ****.com never sells products. A Book of Interest connected with the subject matter being discussed may be linked on various web pages. I have never submittted a job resume online nor am I looking for a job. So employers, please IGNORE those false "resumes" that are supposedly coming from me. Thank you. ~end~

I WISH FOR THE DAY WHEN LAWS REGARDING E-MAILS HAVE SOME TEETH TO THEM. Wishful thinking, I'm sure...

6 posted on 01/24/2003 1:50:20 AM PST by Cindy
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To: MadIvan
Here's a response to SPAM that I tacitly agree with:

MIKE WENDLAND: Internet spammer can't take what he dishes out

December 6, 2002

BY MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

West Bloomfield bulk e-mailer Alan Ralsky, who just may be the world's biggest sender of Internet spam, is getting a taste of his own medicine.

Ever since I wrote a story on him a couple of weeks ago (www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend22_20021122.htm), he says he's been inundated with ads, catalogs and brochures delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to his brand-new $740,000 home.

It's all the result of a well-organized campaign by the anti-spam community, and Ralsky doesn't find it funny.

"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me."

That they are. Gleefully. Almost 300 anti-Ralsky posts were made on the Slashdot.org Web site, where the plan was hatched after spam haters posted his address, even an aerial view of his neighborhood.

"Several tons of snail mail spam every day might just annoy him as much as his spam annoys me," wrote one of the anti-spammers.

Ralsky is indeed annoyed. He says he's asked Bloomfield Hills attorney Robert Harrison to sue the anti-spammers.

7 posted on 01/24/2003 1:52:09 AM PST by petuniasevan (And the whiny POS has the gall to sue.)
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To: flying Elvis
None of those penis things seem to work, anyway. Nor do they flush easily.
8 posted on 01/24/2003 1:55:46 AM PST by Hank Rearden (Bringing you grumpy bon mots since early '99.)
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To: MadIvan
Please feel free to list your least favourite spam messages on this thread

I'll go open my Yahoo mail - I deleted it all at least 3 hours ago. There must be plenty more by now.

Yep! There are 29 unsolicited emails already. Here's some:


9 posted on 01/24/2003 2:11:38 AM PST by petuniasevan (I have 100 filters on my account, plus a bulk mail box. Still I'm inundated.)
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To: MadIvan
I forgot an FR link to that story; it's worth a look:

Internet Spam Mogul Can't Take What He Dishes Out

10 posted on 01/24/2003 2:16:10 AM PST by petuniasevan (I have 100 filters on my account, plus a bulk mail box. Still I'm inundated.)
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To: MadIvan
But wait there is more!


You could already be a winner!


Click here now!


11 posted on 01/24/2003 2:19:43 AM PST by Radix (I have over 100 E-mail accounts and none with the same password! Get a life! .......Just kidding!)
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To: petuniasevan
I just checked my Hotmail account, which is one of the worst offenders. I found over 200 spam mails in there and not single one directly for me.

Most of them were advertisements for porn sites. One was to announce the sale of MLB Bobble Head Dolls.

Regards, Ivan

12 posted on 01/24/2003 2:20:14 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
And a duplicate thread - same story, more amusing anecdotes.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/802070/posts
13 posted on 01/24/2003 2:25:26 AM PST by petuniasevan (I have 100 filters on my account, plus a bulk mail box. Still I'm inundated.)
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To: MadIvan
"Enhance your breast size!"

NO! I don't want to wear a bro (AKA mansiere)!!!


14 posted on 01/24/2003 2:32:11 AM PST by weegee
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To: MadIvan
Let me know if you ever see an offer for Phil Donahue Bobble Heads.
15 posted on 01/24/2003 2:33:04 AM PST by weegee
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To: Radix
Got no free will?

CLICK HERE

16 posted on 01/24/2003 2:34:42 AM PST by weegee
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To: MadIvan
"I'm a former UN arms inspector and I've been given a large sum of money by a foreign government. I need some help from people with bank accounts in the United States to help me desposit the money stateside. I've been given such a payoff that you can expect to keep fully half of this windfall..."
17 posted on 01/24/2003 2:38:35 AM PST by weegee
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To: flying Elvis
Hot college girls want to meet you now.

I guess if those same women had wanted to meet me when I was in college, I'd be in the same position as Scott Ritter is now...

18 posted on 01/24/2003 2:39:53 AM PST by weegee
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To: flying Elvis
My least favorites are:
Increase your penis length.

Ever see this one:

Reduce your penis length quickly:



19 posted on 01/24/2003 2:44:14 AM PST by weegee
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To: flying Elvis
Excess cash burning a hole in your pocket?

We've got ideas for it!

20 posted on 01/24/2003 2:47:38 AM PST by weegee
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