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Vioxx Replaces Porn as Spam King
An anonymous reader noted that CNN is running a story crowning vioxx the new king of spam, upsetting poor old fashioned pornography. Of course, for me all my spam seems to be about rolexes.
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vioxx. pr0n. same thing. it's all about relieving a pain in your muscles.
course if you have pain in your muscles from pr0n you're uhhh doing it wrong.
-Teiresias
If you're wondering why people would still want Vioxx, it's only dangerous if you a pre-existing cardiac condition. So if you're a healthy 20-something with a bad knee, you're probably really pissed that Vioxx got taken off the market.
There were plenty of other people to ask (SpamHaus, maybe the people behind SpamAssassin), but they ask an in-company division for their information on spam. Yes, spam is going down on AOL (as noted in a recent /. story), but couldnt they have asked others along with the numbers from AOL?
Rant aside, Im suprised it was Vioxx prescriptions - most of the ones I get are for improving my sex life....Vioxx was just named deadly by somebody, wasnt it?
-thewldisntenuff
My MythTV HowTo
There may be more vioxx spam than porn spam.. but which of it is CLICKED MORE? eh? EH?
Vioxx is a temporary circumstance ... while pr0n is a permeant condition. It's like the difference between "Out for lunch" and "Out to Lunch."
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
Sounds like the spam companies are targeting the baby boomer generation with Arthritis pills. This also happens to be an age group that would be less sucessful at knowing how to stop spam. Ossus
Actually what the article says is that Vioox prescriptions, ID theft scams, and stock pick information toople porn as spam king. And this is only talking about the spam received by AOL users, not all spam in general.
Portland, North Dakota Puppies
Isn't Vioxx used for anti arthritis? Does that make any sense at all?
It seems that spammers don't even know what they're sending anymore. I get emails with no attachments, no links, just gibberish, with no possible way for me to be that one in eighty-four million that makes them some money.
Is it not so much about money anymore, and more just about pissing people off?
in 1924 perspicacity glutton mining. Because of!
There are also some people who only get pain relief with Vioxx; ``equivalent'' drugs don't seem to work.
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
Want a Watch?
sulli
RTFJ.
Rob, stop telling your credit card companies that you make $2.5 mil a year and you will stop getting rich-people spam. :)
I really don't understand why people take the time to diseminate what's being pushed in Spam emails...
It's still Spam.
It's still annoying as hell
It's still as prolific as ever
And it's still (arguably) illegal and unwanted.
And really, wouldn't it be a much nicer world if peoples efforts were aimed at locating and physically beating the spammers instead of opening each of their emails and analyzing it's content? 8)=
... could the first post get modded redundant.
It used to be that all the spam was telling me to "impress her with my huge new c0ck". Now it's just telling me to "impress her with a r0lex".
Neither one really speaks well of her, does it? But at least before there was still a certain animal physicality about the relationship. Now it's all about the shiny baubles.
I don't know... I just don't think this imaginary relationship is going to last. Maybe I should get back out there, start dating again. 'Course, before I can do that, I'll have to do something about this crippling arthritis of mine...
Of course, for me all my spam seems to be about rolexes.
Well how about that. Lucky you. To me they only offer replicas!
...it is Viagra or something to make your sexual performance better. All these pills, potions, and aides to make your sex life better.
Now it seems sex is not selling as much as it used to. I guess it is time for the pills, potions and aides to make your knees, back or joints to hurt less.
With all this spam filling my inbox, it is so frustrating it makes me give up, delete whatever is in my inbox and mastrubate to relieve the pressure of all this stuff.
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
It seems that recently, spam has been getting better and better at avoiding my filters. All the sex-related e-mails get tossed right away, but the occasional viagra, rolex, cheap software, or vioxx messages still get through. The thing is: the messages are almost imcomprehensible. Often times they don't even have a link to order, or only have a link, or have an otherwise completely non-sensical message.
So how can people actually order this stuff? Half the time I can't tell what they're even selling. Someone has to be buying, or else spammers would at least make an effort to send e-mail that had, oh, I don't know, a way to actually order the product?
Titus Barik
It's gotten to the point where all spammers seem to care about is getting past my filters. Of course, the end result is a subject line that's so idiotic looking that I immediately know that it's spam. Side note: I have to say, too, that Thunderbird does a great job of filtering mass quantities of spam from my inboxes in short order, on both the PC and the Mac. I've been spreading the word, leaving a trail of former Outlook-Express-users in my wake.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
It's interesting that the article mentions that many spam messages are simple text messages with nothing but hyperlinks. This is exactly what Paul Graham predicted in his first essay on Bayesian filtering for spam. This definitely demonstrates that Bayesian techniques are having an effect on the behavior of spammers.
What is it ?
Sometimes the slashdot summaries can be so vague.
Who in their right mind would even *consider* buying drugs from a (probably fraudulent) source on the Internet? I can see why people in Third-World countries with no access to normal healthcare might, but they don't appear to be the target market.
Most spam I get is about enlarging my penis, something that being a woman I can't do, or pleasing a woman with my staying power (I can't have erections for some strange reason). Why is it that most spam is aimed at men when it is obvious that women use the net and e-mail as well?
Today two out of the three I received (new e-mail address they obviously haven't found yet) were telling me to increase how well I can please a woman with exercises and drugs to increase my penis size. It is rather disturbing. One thing I want to know... do men actually think that increasing your penis size will make women ecstatic?
99 bottles of beer in 175 characte
Rolex spam has increased for me as well. I'm currently using the following regular expression on our Astaro firewall to block them, which has caught the recent "rolax" and "R-O-L-E-X" variants (remove the extraneous whitespace):
[ :s pace:][:punct:]_]{0,3}(l|1){1,3}[[:space:][:punct: ]_]{0,3}(e|a){1,3}[[:space:][:punct:]_]{0,3}x
:-)
) to install a FREE screensaver, which, if you're using Outlook [Express], should already be installed by the time you read this sentence! WOW! HOW CONVENIENT! Our online pharmacy is ready to take your orders for cheating housewives in your area, but HURRY! At these prices, they won't last long!
(?i)r[[:space:][:punct:]_]{0,3}(o|0|\(\)){1,3}[
So, bring on the R0001ex!! spam
Hopefully, the next revision of Astaro will include Rolex spam filters in SpamAssassin so that I don't need to use this custom regex anymore.
Here's one message that I'd love to see (and hopefully blocked):
=========
Gr33tingz, Dear Sir! I'm Dr. Jfjweaiofjweoif Iejfiowefjioe from an official bank in Nigeria and am trying to move $39,000,000 MILLION (million) US DOLLARS (United States currency) worth of \/1@gra pills and C1@li5 out of the country but need to confirm your CitiB@nk banking account details. In exchange for the sum of the transfer, you will have the opportunity to be a man like Britney Spears with real-like r()()()()()1eX watches with a screw-in bezel and a second hand that looks like the real thing. All you have to is click here (http://4.12.44.52:39/removeme/now.idc?really=yes
If you look at the headers, you'll find that they're extraordinarily sparse. In some cases, the receiving server will add a little bit of data to keep clients happy, by adhering to RFCs (adding "Date:" and the like. As far as I can tell, this is being done as the most accurate recepient verification system they can dream of. VRFY is not accurate, as many receiving systems will say "Well, I don't know that address, but it's in my domain, so I'll try and receive it." If you do everything up to, but not including the DATA part, there's a chance the server might be sloppy or ignorant. If it accepts the message for delivery without error, then there's a decent chance that address exists. This battle is really getting ugly, and will keep escalating - there is no FUSSP, other than hunting down the spammers and stringing them up with piano wire where it'll hurt them.
I find it ironic that you of all people have anything to say about spam when your sig is one of the spams I receive the most of.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Spam would become, essentially, hyperlinks
Hyperlinks would reduce the revenue per spam so much that spamming would become uneconomic
Unfortunately, it seems he got the first right, but was too optimistic about the second. Still, Bayesian filtering removes the most egregious sales pitches, so I don't complain.
When we can work out that strings of unrelated words make no syntactic sense, we'll really have the spammers nailed (and most of Usenet, but that's just a positive side-effect).
Exercise your right not to vote. thinkoutside.org
Er, damn. http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=040710
Here's some background information:
http://arthritis.about.com/od/cox2inhibitors/a/saf etyreport.htm
http://money.cnn.com/services/tickerheadlines/djh/ 200412231648DOWJONESDJONLINE000879.htm
That said, the majority of pharmeceudical spam I receive is for Cialias and Viagra, the anti-impotency pills. Does anyone here actually receive spam for Vioxx more frequently than these?