Spam – What is it? And why?

Posted on by Opher

I have just finished by daily ritual of removing spam. Thanks to the vagaries of WordPress and their ‘improvements’ this now takes much longer than it used to.

I used to be able to press a button and hey presto all my spam would evaporate. I now have to eradicate them in batches of twenty, press lots of buttons and wait. That’s progress.

While I am waiting I usually scan the spam to see what’s there.

Because I am male I receive the usual crap – porn links, offers for Viagra, penis enlargement and links to ladies whose services I might enjoy – though these have become fewer lately. I wonder what spam female bloggers receive.

Right now I seem to be receiving lots of posts about Bitcoin, gambling and long extracts from medical journals.

It makes me wonder.

Why do these fools clog up my computer with this annoying spam? Do some people actually click on any of this stuff? Are there fools out there who would buy Viagra from some unknown site?

Do some people look at this advert for Bitcoin and think ‘I could be making a fortune here, I’ll buy some of that!’

Why are people sending me extracts from medical journals? Is there some unknown reason behind this that I can’t fathom out? Weird.

I think that because I run a blog and put out a large number of posts I attract in a lot of spam. Does anybody else have the same problem.

Annoying isn’t it?

If there is a way of making life more difficult then there are always people out there who will do it.

Spam and deception. What makes people do these things?

Posted on by Opher

Spam and deception. What makes people do these things?

Every day I have to empty a number of messages out of my spam boxes. They are irritating and annoying.

I cannot for the life of me think why people send this stuff. They fall into a number of categories.

  1. There are adverts for all manner of goods. Would any sane person click on one of these products and buy them? Even if you wanted the thing you’re not going to purchase it off a cold call.
  2. Right now I have someone who is leaving weighty medical tracts on my blog – about 10 a day. I’ve had to block their IP so that they all go directly into trash.
  3. There are all manner of sex services, products and relationship organisations. Likewise – if you wanted to purchase sex, products, operations or join a partnership scheme would you do so from one of these? I doubt it.
  4. There are scams which want you to put in your bank details. Is anyone that stupid?
  5. The one that I can’t figure out are the others leaving meaningless messages saying they like your blog, or want to set up their own or like the layout, or just a big section of gobbledegook. What is that all about?
  6. Then there are the people who pretend to be friends just so that they can deceive you with flattery and try to make a fool of you. They don’t like what you say or stand for but pretend to. Why go to all that trouble?

People are strange.

This minority of anti-social or destructive people create huge problems for the rest of us. Just think how nice and simple the world would be if we didn’t have to put in expensive police, security checks and all the anti-theft paraphernalia. It would all be so much quicker, cheaper, faster and better.

The tiny percentage of criminals, psychologically disturbed, violent and malicious people create disproportionate problems for the rest of us.

What we need is a Love Gun that puts their brains right!

If you would like to purchase a book visit my Amazon page:

In the UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1477841671&sr=1-2-ent

In the USA:

https://www.amazon.com/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1477841800&sr=1-2-ent

The Spam Box

Posted on by Opher

Every now and again I like to take a look in my spam box to see what is ending up there. Occasionally I do find genuine comments that for some reason have become caught up with the junk.

Of course there are the people who are after selling you products or services. I can see where they’re coming from but some are less clear. Some are very cryptic.

One wonders why people send this stuff.

In my Spam Box today were a few completely blank messages from people whose address is random letters. What is that about? What can anyone hope to gain by sending those?

I have some in weird symbols that look Russian.

Just lately I have been receiving large sections of medical/biological notes. Why would someone send those? I get about ten of them a day.  I’ve tried to think of a reason but it’s stumped me.

There are some weird people out there!

Huge amount of SPAM!! How do we get rid of this annoyance?

Posted on by Opher

It seems that some troll has fixed it so that every time I put out a post my blog is bombarded with SPAM by a bot. Around 900 spam posts clog up my spam folder following a post.

Now it only takes the press of a button to get rid of them but it is annoying. Every now and again genuine replies end up in the spam box and require rescuing. I obviously cannot do that as it would take hours to wade through all the spam in the box to find them.

So – firstly – I always reply to any message left on my blog. If you haven’t had a reply then I’m sorry. It might have ended up in the spam box and been deleted.

Secondly, if anybody has any idea of how I could put a stop to this trolling bot clogging up my spam box please give me a shout.

Thank you! Happy blogging!

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam – I’ve been abandoned by the Russian girls!!

Posted on by Opher

I am intrigued by my spam box. I find all manner of interesting things in it.

A while ago there were numerous Russian ladies who were eager to make my acquaintance. They seem to have transferred their romantic inclinations to someone else. How I miss them.

I also miss the Chinese ladies who want to be my Asian girlfriend. I wonder if anyone ever takes them up on their kind offer? I felt so mean refusing them all.

Then there were various gambling opportunities. I was offered hundreds of free spins or bets. They were playing the percentages and hoping I’d get hooked. I’ve seen the big cars the bookies drive and the large houses they own. I took a chance and refused.

Then there are a number who congratulate me on writing such brilliant informative posts. I think I might type out and frame some of those. They are great for the ego. Unfortunately the posts they attach they too are not related to the object of their praise. I feel let down. If only they had tailored it a little.

Then there are the religious ones who inform me that god is watching me and quote various chunks of bible at me. I remain unsaved. I am sure they are devastated.

The most strange of all are the ones which have a string of nonsense. Long rambling extracts of nonsense. I can’t see what their game is? Are they bots? Are they just being annoying?

Lately I have been inundated with offers of psychic readings. It just shows that they aren’t psychic. If they were they’d have known I wasn’t going to respond.

The annoying thing about spam boxes is that you have to check them because sometimes real messages get put in with the spam and need rescuing.

Spam. It is intriguing isn’t it? A whole world of weird motives. It gives you an insight into the unsavoury minds of people on the fringes.

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM

Posted on by Opher

Today my spam box was full up with people leaving trite false message but wanting to sell hair extensions. Why would anybody think that a person in their right mind would open a message like that? Or display it? Or buy a hair extension off them?

Is it some kind of scam I do not understand?

The rest of the spam was from psychic readers and tarot cards. If they were that good at seeing into the future they’d know they were wasting their time. How come I get all the duff ones? The good ones don’t bother trying.

Sadly it seems that the Russian and Thai girls no longer wish to meet me and no Chinese girls want me to be their boyfriend. I miss them.

I suppose that is probably why the Viagra salesman no longer calls. He figures that as the girls have lost interest I no longer have any need.

Spam has definitely become less interesting. No Nigeria Generals are offering to put huge sums of money into my bank, I don’t seem to have won enormous sums of money in prizes and no lawyers are contacting me to inherit vast sums from unknown deceased relatives.

Ho Hum. Perhaps it will pick up soon? There are always the Romanian girls, Norwegian girls, Italian girls………………

Spam and deception. What makes people do these things?

Posted on by Opher

Every day I have to empty a number of messages out of my spam boxes. They are irritating and annoying.

I cannot for the life of me think why people send this stuff. They fall into a number of categories.

  1. There are adverts for all manner of goods. Would any sane person click on one of these products and buy them? Even if you wanted the thing you’re not going to purchase it off a cold call.
  2. There are all manner of sex services, products and relationship organisations. Likewise – if you wanted to purchase sex, products, operations or join a partnership scheme would you do so from one of these? I doubt it.
  3. There are scams which want you to put in your bank details. Is anyone that stupid?
  4. The one that I can’t figure out are the others leaving meaningless messages saying they like your blog, or want to set up their own or like the layout, or just a big section of gobbledegook. What is that all about?
  5. Then there are the people who pretend to be friends just so that they can deceive you with flattery and try to make a fool of you. They don’t like what you say or stand for but pretend to. Why go to all that trouble?

People are strange.

This minority of anti-social or destructive people create huge problems for the rest of us. Just think how nice and simple the world would be if we didn’t have to put in expensive police, security checks and all the anti-theft paraphernalia. It would all be so much quicker, cheaper, faster and better.

The tiny percentage of criminals, psychologically disturbed, violent and malicious people create disproportionate problems for the rest of us.

What we need is a Love Gun that puts their brains right!

If you would like to purchase a book visit my Amazon page:

In the UK:

In the USA:

E Mail spam and nuisance posts. More SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM

Posted on by Opher

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While I’m on the subject of Spam I thought I would continue being a grumpy old man for a bit longer.

Doesn’t it get incredibly annoying when you receive tens of unsolicited emails advertising products?

Every morning I start the day eliminating all the posts that are unsolicited and trying to sell me something – holidays, kindle books, PPI, Korean girls, Asian girls, dating sites, Wonga, gambling sites, debt control, credit ratings ………..

Now if and when I ever get to wanting a date with a gorgeous Brazilian/Asian/Korean girl, to claim my PPI back, consolidate my loans, take up wasting my money on gambling or take a holiday to get away from the SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM, I will be sure to shun all the services on offer, investigate a good deal and do it elsewhere.

I cannot believe that anyone in the country still wants their PPI looking into or hasn’t got Solar Panels, a new boiler and insulation.

Does anyone ever take them up on their cold call offers. If they do they must be nuts!

As a writer who enjoys selling his books (and does from time to time send out blog posts about my books) I can sympathise with the book sellers. What really annoys me though is when they send you multiple adverts for the same book. If I didn’t want it the first time why would I want it the tenth time of asking? Sometimes there is a line of a dozen identical posts sitting there glaring at me. Marketing is fine but that is a turn off.

Only a fraction of this gets picked up on my Spam filters. I have to check my spam filter every day and delete the tens of spam messages. But worse – I have to go through all my E mails and delete each crap unsolicited one. This morning I ended up deleting fifty of them.

It takes time! Why do they do it?

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM – Who? What? and Why?

Posted on by Opher

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Every day I have to check my Spam folder. It always has something in it and it is usually Spam. Unfortunately every now and then a genuine message gets caught up in there so you have to check.

I’ve looked at these messages. Some are trying to promote a product, some are trying to sell you a service that will instantly transform your blog and most of it is gobble-de-gook.

You have to ask yourself –

a. Do any of those idiots advertising products think you might just buy something off them?

b. If you wanted a service to upgrade your website you would pick one out of the Spam filter?

c. Who enjoys putting chunks of meaningless sentences together to send out to random sites?

Now either I’m simple and naive and there is a sinister motive behind this spam or there are a lot of very daft people out there who are intent on wasting my time. Probably both of those.

So why are they doing it? What is their motive? Are they merely bored mischief makers.