Microsoft and Yahoo Working Together On Spam?

Posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

Spam is top of a lot of people’s agenda at the moment. What with the new spam comments service that Darren Rowse has voiced complaint about (for the record, I don’t agree with it either) and seemingly a lot of spam getting through Akismet at the moment. I myself am finding a lot of spam getting into my email inbox at the moment, even though GMail is normally quite good at filtering it all out.

I don’t want to complain about spam right now though, as I received one of the less well thought out messages recently that gave me a good giggle. Very early this morning I received the following email:

MICROSOFT AWARD PROMOTION DEPARTMENT
#1 Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052
Ref: BTD/610/07
Batch: 742701AE

Lucky Winner
You are Number(5) Amount won (1,000.000)One Million

Great Britain Pounds)
Contact our Fiduciary agent
Mr.James Bennett Claims Agent)
E-mail:claimsagentuk9@yahoo.co.uk

My claims agent from the Microsoft Award Promotion Department has a Yahoo email address? I can’t wait for the day I receive a well thought out spam email, until then I will continue to laugh whilst I dump these in the spam folder.

Had any ridiculous spam recently? I’d love to see what you get too.

Edit: More spam! I have just seen that Akismet has just passed the 2 billion mark, will nothing stop these crazy spammers?

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Comments

  1. 1July 11th, 2007 at 2:20 pm

    dave Says:

    hey phil,

    sorry to hear about your spam woes. i have found a solution that has eliminated spam from my life altogether.

    i too use gmail but unlike you no spam ever reaches my inbox and certainly no legitimate email ever gets labelled as spam.

    i created a filter in gmail so that anything that matches “is:spam” follows the rule “skip inbox, delete”.

    the result? i haven’t seen any spam in months, no more periodically emptying the spam folder, no unsightly large number next to the spam label in gmail.

    give it a go!


  2. 2July 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm

    Phil Says:

    Hi Dave,

    That is a brilliant way of keeping the spam folder clean, I didn’t know you could filter on spam!

    Sadly it won’t fix what is going on now, i.e. spam not getting filtered by GMail properly, resulting in items like the above appearing in my inbox.

    Great tip anyway, I will be implementing that as soon as possible.


  3. 3July 12th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    Laura Says:

    Thanks for sharing your spam! I got a grin out of it. I always chuckle at the spams that assume, for some reason, that I am a man. They have titles like “how to please the ladies.”

    My Akismet filter has deleted way more spam that I ever received as comments (at a ratio of about 9:1).

    Oh, and congratulations on your winnings. ;)


  4. 4July 12th, 2007 at 3:24 pm

    Phil Says:

    Hi Laura,

    I do enjoy seeing the ridiculous ways they try to tempt whoever’s email they get through to, I just couldn’t believe the oversight they made here!

    As for comment spam, I’ve had 35 times the number of spam compared to real comments here. How crazy…


  5. 5August 19th, 2007 at 11:29 pm

    Dana Says:

    I personally am wondering why I wasted all that money at KU when I have been offered four University degrees in the last week.


  6. 6August 20th, 2007 at 10:43 am

    Traveller Says:

    I have actually been pretty impressed by the spam filters currently. Other than for the recent PDF based spam, I am quite happy with the state of affairs compared to a year back.


  7. 7August 20th, 2007 at 11:27 pm

    Phil Says:

    Dana: I never get offered degrees any more! It’s disappointing as a degree is much more useful than some of the things I do get offered!

    Traveller: I agree, spam filters are consistently improving. When I wrote this I had received a barrage of spam into my inbox and there was a lot of talk on blogs about a lot of comment spam. I was amused by this email and thought I’d share it as a light hearted look at the problem.

    Ultimately I’m glad of Gmail and the work it does to keep my inbox clean. Much better than the old Hotmail days anyway!


  8. 8September 13th, 2007 at 7:17 am

    LA Head Shot Photography Says:

    THIS STUFF CRACKS ME UP! I GET ABOUT 50 OF THESE PER DAY, IF YOU COUNT THE E-LOTTERIES, THE HERE LIES(SOME LADIES NAME) WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE DIEING OF SOMETHING AND HER HUSBAND SUPPOSEDLY LEFT HER A FORTUNE THAT SHE DON’T WANT TO LEAVE TO HER HUSBANDS FAMILY! , THE JOB OFFERS FROM FOREIGN COMPANYS- THAT WANT YOU TO SEND MONEY TO PROCESS YOUR APPLICATION, OR THE ONE LABLED PLEASE READ THAT HAS A VIRISE IN IT. BELIEVE IT OR NOT THESE SCUMBAGS TAKE PEOPLE FOR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!! AND THEY GIVE BACK -”NOTHING” TODD


  9. 9September 17th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    Phil Says:

    Todd, it is such a shame that somewhere along the lines people make money out of this and therefore keep doing it and filling up our inboxes and junkboxes.

    A spam message such as the one above shows that those taking part are pretty stupid too, so at least we can feel a little bit better about it and have a laugh!


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