New Girlfriend
I seem to be getting a lot of attention from someone called Julia at the moment. I've lost count of the number of times she's emailed me, but every message is exactly the same:
My email reader won't download images unless I tell it to, which I haven't in this instance, but I'm sure there's a very nice picture of a pretty young blonde thing to go with this rather illiterate message. I know this is spam, even if my spam filter is having a hard time learning to recognise it. What I can't quite understand is what its purpose is, other than to irritate the hell out of me. There's no link to click; the email address isn't even embedded as a mailto: command. It doesn't seem to be trying to sell me anything, and any possibility that I might have fallen for the 'friends list' angle fell apart as soon as I received the second identical message, quite apart from the fact that the email headers have been doctored to make it look like it's come from me anyway.
I guess whoever sent it could be fishing for email addresses to sell on to other spammers, but they've got my address already. And if you're buying mailing lists at the dodgy end of the market, you're hardly going to complain if most of them turn out to be false.
The penis-enhancement emails that are as much a part of daily life as bread and cheese I can understand. Send a million, and even if only .001% respond, you've still got a thousand hits to your website. There are plenty of people out there stupid enough to believe that a pill will make their willy as big as a stallion's. It's a numbers game that makes perfect sense if you're trying to sell something or trick people into giving away their life secrets. But this, I just don't get. I'm almost tempted to send Julia a message, perhaps accompanied by a photo of George Clooney or Brad Pitt to let her know what I really look like.
Almost, but not quite.
Hello, im Julia.
I found you in my friends list.
I'm guess I added you at the one of social networks.
I live in New York, USA.
Search for new friends. like to travel and like visit new places.
I wanna visit UK again.
email: info@julianewyork76.com
I hope to hear from you and see more pictures soon.
Kisses. Have a nice day and take care.
Julia
My email reader won't download images unless I tell it to, which I haven't in this instance, but I'm sure there's a very nice picture of a pretty young blonde thing to go with this rather illiterate message. I know this is spam, even if my spam filter is having a hard time learning to recognise it. What I can't quite understand is what its purpose is, other than to irritate the hell out of me. There's no link to click; the email address isn't even embedded as a mailto: command. It doesn't seem to be trying to sell me anything, and any possibility that I might have fallen for the 'friends list' angle fell apart as soon as I received the second identical message, quite apart from the fact that the email headers have been doctored to make it look like it's come from me anyway.
I guess whoever sent it could be fishing for email addresses to sell on to other spammers, but they've got my address already. And if you're buying mailing lists at the dodgy end of the market, you're hardly going to complain if most of them turn out to be false.
The penis-enhancement emails that are as much a part of daily life as bread and cheese I can understand. Send a million, and even if only .001% respond, you've still got a thousand hits to your website. There are plenty of people out there stupid enough to believe that a pill will make their willy as big as a stallion's. It's a numbers game that makes perfect sense if you're trying to sell something or trick people into giving away their life secrets. But this, I just don't get. I'm almost tempted to send Julia a message, perhaps accompanied by a photo of George Clooney or Brad Pitt to let her know what I really look like.
Almost, but not quite.
Comments
"Oh no, there's been a problem with my credit card. Can you forward me the money for a plane ticket, and I'll pay you back in cash the moment I'm there? Btw, here's another photo of me in a low-cut top."
Not that I'm saying I've been involved in scamming people this way myself, but let's just say I look mighty fine in my frilly undergarments.
I've had about 20 of the exact same Julia emails now, they have her email address in them. So I put the first line of her email in Google Search to see if anyone else is getting them. It's a clever one isn't it. She sounds so lonely, eventually you start feeling you should contact the poor girl to help her find her frend. Thanks for bloggin it, confirms they are a con trick of some sort. No dounbt whatever happens if you email her back is not nice.
(I liked the one where they marooned two scammers in a warzone, myself.)
That pint might have to be in Scotland, as that's where I'm headed soon. Or maybe next time I'm in Suffolk. That's where they make Abbot after all.
And Julia seems to have ditched me. It must have been the beard.
Going north across the border is always fraught with difficulties; namely language, culture and a diferent way of life - still the Suffolk folk can be quite friendly in small groups. Back in Essex, we're currently enjoying the annual invasion of cable knits and yes, beards for the Chappel beer festival
http://www.earm.co.uk/events/beerfest.php