AMAZON Spam Alert! - Very Clever Spoofing

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While cruising through my massively-overloaded inbox, I chanced upon the following seemingly-legitimate email sent by "Amazon" about the cancellation of my order. The thing is, I don't order from AMAZON. Yet this notice told confirmed my cancellation of a book order -- a book I'd never heard of, let alone ordered.

The thing that made it seem so spooky was that it had seemed to be sent from a real a genuine AMAZON return email address {this is called "spoofing," and it is becoming an increasing problem in the alternate universe where Spam meets Scam.

My first thought was that someone had somehow stolen my identity in order to purchase something from AMAZON. Following is the suspect email. WARNING: DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS, AS THEY MAY CONTAIN VIRUSES AND/OR MALWARE!
_________________

Amazon.com - Your Cancellation (11-6579-93311)

Dear Customer,

Your order has been successfully canceled. For your reference, here's a summary of your order:

You just canceled order 11-6579-93311 placed on May 4, 2012.

Status: CANCELED

_____________________________________________________________________

1 "Partings"; 2008, Deluxe Edition
  By: Andrea Anderson

Sold by: Amazon.com LLC

_____________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting Amazon.com!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com
Earth's Biggest Selection
http://www.amazon.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
####

Take care and beware. Remember -- when technological advancement meets a challenged economy, scams, scandals and frauds multiply.

Douglas E. Castle for The Spambox Gold Blog

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A Classic Spam Phishing Scam - YAHOO! Email.

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While trolling through my spambox for treasures, I stumbled across this completely unauthorized and somewhat sloppy hijacking of the Yahoo! logo as well as a falsely applied security seal at the bottom (lower right) of the letter. Aside from its entertainment value and the fact that it was almost all done in a photo format (instead of a print format which would have required more skill and which might have carried the look of greater authenticity), I found one aspect amazingly silly:

The letter was signed with a person's name, purportedly in the capacity of an officer of Yahoo!

If you know anything about Yahoo! or any of its colossal colleagues, you've probably come to realize that no human being associated with any of them ever issues personalized correspondence, or even mentions a first and last name (with the possible exception of mention in shareholders' reports, and other regulatory filings where certain actual Human Beings are required to assume and disclose their affiliations and responsibilities).

A copy of this beauty follows. Just click on it to get a larger version with higher resolution.

Douglas E. Castle

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1 In 15 Spams = Gold Nugget! [Incredible Statistic; the GTP Ratio]

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In my spambox diving, picking, sniffing and manual re-filtering (which is hard to avoid when so many of my valid emails wind up being categorized and snagged by my pit bull-like spam filter as junk mail), I have spent the past two months finding the ratio of Gold to Poop (the "GTP Ratio", a new acronym and possibly a Lingovation).

Excluding all of the emails which were intended for my inbox but which were shunted to my spambox (in other words, dealing with only bona fide spam, such as Somalian mail-order brides, Nigerian plane crash corrupt banker money scams, "Somebody has been checking up on you" sucker magnets, "Important news about your Yahoo/Citibank/American Express/VISA/mortgage/account" phishing lines, and those ads about cheap drugs for male enhancement, winning the Mayan Lottery, a FedEx package waiting for me and the like), I found my average GTP Ratio to be ONE IN 15 SPAMBOX ITEMS, or approximately 6.67%!

That's correct: my GTP Ratio was 6.67%.

The odds of my finding something of interest or use in my panning for Spambox Gold are far better than my odds of:

1.  winning any substantial lottery;

2.  being audited;

3.  having someone purchase a product or service after having visited one of my blogs (although they keep a-coming for the swell content, thankfully).

Here's the audience participation part [just for you, Dear Reader!]:

 Nifty, Quick Survey

Go through your spambox for about 7 consecutive days, and compute your GTD Ratio. When you've done this, please send me your personal GTD Ratio statistic by clicking on this "Contact Douglas Castle" link. I am hoping to compile enough data to come up with an average GTD Ratio per reader. Please help me in this glorious effort.

Thank you in advance for your time, consideration, participation and loyal readership. Spamology marches boldly on.

Douglas E. Castle for The Spambox Gold Blog

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Mobile Spam - Soliticitations Via Text

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We tend to use our smartphones increasingly to send and receive text messages -- especially the up-and-coming Millenials. In fact, the use of mobile phones for texting (in terms of the number of transmittals) far outweighs the number of telephone calls for a typical user under 30 year of age. Some of these kids use texting the way many of us had used Instant Messaging (IM) some years ago.

Of course, I now frequently receive text message solicitations (all uninvited) on my telephone. I stop what I'm doing, take a look at the text of the spam-o-gram, and it usually requires that I actually respond to them (a coerced and costly action on my part) via return text if I wish to opt out of future "messages" from them. I resent these intrusions at my own expense.

If you want to give these perpetrators an inconvenience of their own to deal with, plus stop them from these solicitations, there are two websites which offer help:

FCC - CAN-SPAM ACT, and

LETA SHY's Article In GEEKSUGAR (Where "Geek is "Chic")

I wish you the very best of luck in your efforts to combat this texting or SMS spam -- to get spam is one thing...but to have to pay for receiving it! That twists my knickers.

Douglas E Castle for The Spambox Gold Blog




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An Unsolicited Promotion - Spam or Glam?

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Shadow Leaders (puppeteers) and Alternative Governments (secret controllers) are notions which have now gone beyond the realm of futuristic sci-fi books and movies, 'crackpot' websites, and other forms of either imagination-fueled or paranoia-fueled media and become increasingly prevalent in the headlines and subject matter of articles and posts in highly-respected media and blogs.

Such authors as Dan Brown, Vince Flynn, Robert Ludlum, David Icke, and such mainstream television shows as The Unit, StrikeBack, Burn Notice are pressing the notion of secret societies, black-ops government units, private armies, cabals, conspiracies, privileged families pulling strings, and very small, secretive, amoral groups exerting incredible force (without allegiance to any country or cause) over the population and resources of the entire planet.

The Warren Commission, Area 51, Roswell, Fort Knox, Ruby Ridge, BP's ecological accident, Stealth Weapons, The World Trade Center Tragedy, the financial meltdown of the World Banking System, leaked correspondence from some very large and influential companies -- all of these magnetically, hypnotically pull our minds into at least contemplating the frightening and almost incomprehensible possibility of massive cover-ups, stratospheric power plays, para-governmental contractors in pivotal positions, and an elaborately-woven quilt of lies compounded upon lies.

You cannot help but think about the possibilities. Unthinkable Possibilities....yet we think about them.

Let's examine them together in A New Twitter Group. There is a great deal of fiction and fantasy out there, but what about the part that might actually be true? The best lies are concealed in half-truths, and dangerous truths are strategically debunked by tossing them in with the ravings of 'lunatics,' 'paranoids,' and 'extremists.' Join us.

Details follow, and all inquisitive minds are welcome - once there, you can draw your own conclusions. We don't pass judgment on our members -- we pass information and intelligence on to them for them to evaluate.

Again, join us.

Douglas E Castle

Follow @ShadowLeaders






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