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AOL Names Top Spam Subjects For 2005

JamesAlfaro writes "Donald Trump and "penis patch" were the most popular subject lines used by spammers this year, as the fraudsters grew more sophisticated in trying to trick consumers, America Online said Wednesday in its third annual Top 10 Spam List. Six out of the 10 top subject lines this year fell into what experts call "special-order spam," which pretend to be from a friend, or part of a legitimate, customer-driven transaction."

18 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Donald Trump and "penis patch" by Garg · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like the title of a children's book from Hell.

    --
    Garg
    Alumnus, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
  2. Sadly... by parasonic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The topics/products that they are using must be effective because they keep the spammers in business. It's horrible, but since these spammers are in business, a LOT of people must be falling for them.

    1. Re:Sadly... by Jeng · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, it means that the spammers are being employed by businesses that are falling for them.

      Doesn't necassarily mean that it is bringing in more business to those who employ spammers.

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
  3. AOL could really help out.... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... you know, something really simple that would help the war on spam.

    1) Clean up your 20 year old database of it's unused usernames
    2)Blacklist any server/ip/whatever that sends email to x amount of disabled accounts (I would say x ==5 but any value really would work)
    3) Publish said blacklist

    There is no way a spammer could avoid an AOL address. Start doing this with hotmail, yahoo mail, netscape mail, whatever mail, and I think we would be able to lock off the "bad" senders a lot faster than projects such as spews.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    1. Re:AOL could really help out.... by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is a better idea: do this locally.

      Set up two accounts on your mail server (example.org): aaron@example.org and zeke@example.org -- any two names that sound legitimate and sort very early/very late. Then, make sure these two names are well-published; you may put them on your webpage, include them in .sig, whatever.

      When anything hits one of these mailboxes, just block the relevant traffic -- autolearn the piece of spam, _temp_ block the IP and/or bump its score.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    2. Re:AOL could really help out.... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Adn essentially, I imagine a LOT of people do this locally. But AOL is in a unique position, that they are the largest target for spam, and have the EASIEST way of detecting it (by flagging excessive mail to unused accounts). Have that list for the general public to suck down and everyones spam from said places would drop dramatically. The response time could be multitudes faster and more effective than spews

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  4. Spelling by Tri0de · · Score: 4, Funny

    What I STILL cannot figure out is WHY some jerk off thinks I would refinance my mortgage with, or trust the health and safety of Mr. Happy to, someone who cannot even fucking *SPELL*!!

    --
    "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
  5. I'm just upset because by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    Paris Hilton never writes me any more :(

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  6. Penis Patches.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Penis Patches are of course for Penis Pirates (to go with the little penis parrots)

    Yaaaaaaaaaaargggggh! Avast! I see booty

    (etc etc etc)

  7. Re:Need s0ftware? by Medievalist · · Score: 4, Insightful


    You don't need to find the lusrs with pwned boxen. They, after all, are only doing what they've been told to do by us technical elitey types.

    You just need to realize that the broadband providers are capable of stopping this problem by themselves, with their existing equipment, and the only reason they don't do it is because it would impact their revenue stream (well, that and the high correlation of greed with stupidity).

    With Comcast's resources at my disposal, I could stop all spam and virus propagation from their networks in a month or less. But a certain number of customers (mostly spammers and other criminals) would stop paying their monthly bill as a result, and thus Comcast has a simple ROI equation: Screw you over, and get paid, do the Right Thing, and don't get paid.

    Easy decision for them, because WE are letting them get away with it. Write your congresscritter, make Comcast (and their ilk) liable for running worm farms.

  8. Re:FYI by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Strange. Where's Doctor's "The Ultimate Online Pharmaceutical" or Vanessa J. Smith's "Software"? I know I'm not the only one who gets those. And the repetition of the same subject in their respective e-mails should make them show up on the list somewhere. The Rolex and Xbox 360 spams tend to change their subject lines...

  9. Re:Maybe the two are linked? by ShibaInu · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think "firing his apprentice" is Donald's term for working his penis patch.

  10. Penis patch? by EnsilZah · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, i for one am happy to see the makers of penis are fast to respond to the latest penis exploits.

  11. Re:Paypal pfishing by greysky · · Score: 4, Funny

    I haven't seen any of these. But I have had to re-enter all my financial info into paypal about a hundred times this year.

  12. The Essential Spam Quote of the Day by Toxicgonzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penisses, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship.

    http://bash.org/?203815

  13. Re:Spam is interesting by jbrader · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thay're actually pretty heavy duty (I'm not going to discuss how I know). You'd have to be engaged in some pretty vigorous activity to damage one.

    --
    You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
  14. I always keep my penis up-to-date by dangitman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Always update your penis regularly with the latest patches. It is effective security against viruses and bugs. Just don't use Microsoft patches, as they cause shrinkage and floppiness.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  15. Re:Spam is interesting by Burning1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Parent is absolutly right. These toys are often quite large and sturdy. Having some knowledge of them I can say with confidence: here in the USA, glass dildo breaks YOU.