Apparently, they want nothing from me

[vvvexation]

I just finished my sporadic spam-folder check, and once again I am bemused. In addition to the usual offers to "bigger my short d1cck" and one attempt to convince me that I've won a lottery I never entered ("we don't sell tickets, we just use a 'cyber ballot system' to pick a random email address as our yearly winner--because we want to 'reward individuals who spend their time and resources surfing the web'")--oh, and one notice from a bank where I don't have an account, telling me they might have to suspend my account unless I clear up these reports of suspicious activity (read: tell them my credit card number), and quite clearly addressed to ten people besides me *snerk*--I've also received two pieces of blank junk mail. No subject, no text, and no sender either--so it's not even possible to reply to it.

Is this just a preliminary attempt to see which addresses don't bounce, or what? You wouldn't think they'd need to bother with that, right?

It's actually kinda eerie. I feel like it must be a setup for something weird, 'cause if it isn't, I can't explain it at all.

Comments

[tsgeisel.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just spam-bot configuration failure. I get a few of those to my Yahoo account.

My favorites are the ones that are addressed from root@seuss.org telling me my logins (many of them) on my virtual domain have expired. Yeah. Sure. Right. I'll get right on that.

[pure-agnostic.livejournal.com]

I strongly recommend against even clicking on those emails. Some of them have tricks for determining if somebody clicked on them. This proves that a live person saw the email, and the end result is that you get more spam. (But, you probably knew that already.)

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Do those tricks depend on which program you're reading the email with?

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Yes. If you're using a mail reader that either ignores HTML or doesn't display images in emails, those tricks won't work. If you're using a mail reader that ignores HTML, that would explain why some spam emails look blank to you.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Aha. Normally it would tell me they were there and ask me whether I wanted to display them, but I guess it doesn't bother doing that with email in the spam folder.

[pure-agnostic.livejournal.com]

As catamorphism said, they often use HTML. A very common trick is to embed an image tag inside the email. When your email reader downloads the image, the server at the other end figures out which email contained the request. There are other tricks similar to this, and they usually require downloading something when you click on the email.

Some email readers give you no choice as to whether you get HTML email, or plain-text email. But some will, and will also give you the option of not showing any images until you choose for each separate email to see the images. I only use Netscape Communicator on Linux for reading email. It has an option for "Do not load remote images in Emails and Newsgroups." (emphasis mine) And I never download and read email on my Windows box because Linux is more secure. (Linux will not automatically run programs found inside emails. I'd have to choose to save the attachment as an executable, and then go to a shell window to run it. Furthermore, when I run, it only has my account's limited privileges, so it can'd do much damage. I very rarely run anything when I login as root.

Once your email gets stuck inside the spammer's database, it can be hard to remove it. One trick is to delete your email account for a day. All the emails bounce back to the sender, and the spammer's server automatically removes your email address from the database. Then you restore your email account just like it was before. I'd suggest telling your friends that you are disabling your email for a day or two before you do this.

That should help keep you safe from malicious emails, and spam-free.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

See above re: images. I don't get enough spam to make deleting my account a worthwhile maneuver, though. I guard my address pretty carefully.

[jen92373.livejournal.com]

Every few months I get an email from a "lawyer" in Africa wanting to give me a huge amount of money to avoid having it fall into the hands of someone who will use it to buy guns/run drugs/kill orphanes/ect. Supposedly it belonged to someone else with the last name McCrary, and it's all mine in exchange for my bank account number.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Huh. I hadn't heard of 419 scammers actually claiming to be related to the sender before. Nice touch.

[hadar-aviram.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with ya. The number of noble princes from exotic African kingdoms who need MY immediate help in transferring their money out of their country is astounding.