I’ve checked my profile on the CIOB website and have specifically opted out of third party mailings, so no consent has been given.

So either their membership records have been hacked or they’ve gone against my wishes.

So does that mean someone’s hacked their customer database or is it just a bizarre coincidence that someone has managed to combine their site name with one of my domain names? Hmm…

First half of 2008 (up to 30 June 2008):

227659 e-mails received (plus the GMail ones).

211699 spams filtered by MailWasher Pro.

93% spam.

Second half of 2008 (up to 30 December 2008):

62,319 e-mails received (plus the GMail ones).

41,672 spams filtered by MailWasher Pro.

66% spam.

Combined

289,978 e-mails received (plus the GMail ones) [356,032 so minus 19%] .

253,371 spams filtered by MailWasher Pro [319,499 - minus 21%].

87% spam then.

Commentary

The headline figures look good, but that split is what’s important. Basically in June 2008 with my spam stats. looking like heading for another record, I decided to kill my “catch-all” e-mail set-ups and painstakingly create all legitmate mailboxes and aliases. And with that, the spam stats. have come down dramatically.

356,032 e-mails received (plus the GMail ones) [322,853 so plus 10%] .

319,499 Spams filtered by MailWasher Pro [284,680 - plus 12%].

So we tend to delete all the ‘useful’ information and just leave the e-mail addresses they helpfully include so that other spammers can offer them viagra, tickets for rugby matches and those missing millions from Nigeria. Here’s hoping anyway.

I thought I’d start posting their e-mail addresses on here (and hence on the sites carrying the syndicated RSS feeds) so that other can avail themselves of their bargain wares … or something.

Here’s the latest: iphones@europemail.com iphone@ommail.com iphonss@yahoo.com

Today one of my sites has been generating Spam from a contact form – the usual links to sites selling pretty pink placebos or whatever.

So what exactly is the point? It’s so pathetic, I don’t even get annoyed and I’m clearly not stupid enough to buy any of this shit from a bunch of no-mark twats.

Still if it keeps some third world countryman employed at the expense of these twats then so be it.

Two e-mail messages, both entitled “Freedom from specs and contacts with laser eye surgery” but sent to two different domain names and two different users, a “Richard Gummer” and a “Richard Rooke”. Obviously these two names are fictitious and only exist on Frankdata’s spam database.

Optical Express have promised to investigate and get back to me…

Well guess what? When Jenna Bibby from DBS Datamarketing told me on 17 January 2007 that:

“I can confirm that your email address has now been permanently removed from our system”

she was lying to me, as Toyota GB spammed me two days later.

And no, there wasn’t an issue with the lists already being in the system for that one, because I received another spam from “Toyota (GB) PLC in Association with DBS [dbs-toyota@emailmovers.ec-messenger.com]” today about some crappy “Toyota Arse” or something.

Oh and I asked Jenna Bibby about this on 19 January 2007 and haven’t yet received a lie reply from her yet. I wonder why?

See the full story here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/01/t_mobile_spam/

There are one or two belters that I’m quoting here from that article:

“So, just to recap, T-Mobile hired Quantum Media who hired Mailtrack Media who hired E-Mail Movers who bought a list from Century Communications who bought it from a bloke on eBay.”

and

“All the companies involved are British-based and signed up to the Direct Marketing Association, as well as being responsible to the Information Commissioner’s Office. In light of our complaint, E-Mail Movers has lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner who will investigate the procedures used by Century Communications.”

Now, we all know that the Direct Marketing Association are, by definition, the sort of people you wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire, but I love the way that Emailmovers have lodged a complaint! It was their fault in the first place (and Mailtrack Media before that and Quantum Media before that and, of course, not forgetting T-Mobile themselves who decided to breach a Statutory Instrument).

Well done T-Mobile!

Why are spammers stupid?

Well they know that there are those gullible idiots who are keen to hand over money to Nigerian 419 scammers and the like and how they’ll click on those phishing links, especially when there’s a $ reward survey supposedly there to be had, or to sign up to MLM programs especially those that proclaim they’re not MLM deals when they clearly are. So they take the broad-brush, scatter-gun approach to sending out junk e-mails.

That must work even with a very low number of clicks per million as it’s so cheap to send out Spam.

But they’ve moved on to getting their websites some coverage. And the way they found to do this was to spam blog comments and trackbacks as well as filling in and submitting feedback or guestbook forms.

The trouble is, anyone with half a brain either junks or disallows all trackbacks or else they use the features of their blogging software to require authentication or moderation so that those Spam attempts go nowhere. Liskewise, feedback forms: they’re going to come back to people like me who’ll just junk the link spam ones without reading them.

And the best bit is that is probably costing these fuckwith spammers money to get these forms filled in, either manually or by bots. Excellent!