Tag: Spam

Send Spam or WE KILL YOU!!!

/Other Things

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A few weeks ago I got this piece of Comment SPAM in my e-mail:

A new comment on the post #94 "Does Spam Work?" is waiting for your approval
http://jonwestfall.com/2007/04/does-spam-work/
Author : Make Money Online with Mr. X
E-mail : russianmobvictim85943@gmail.com
Comment:
HELP! I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia and being forced to post spam comments on blogs! If you don’t approve this they will kill me. They’re coming back now. Please send help!

Needless to say I didn’t approve it… which probably means I contributed to someone’s untimely demise…

Photo: sindesign

Ah… Comment Spam

/Other Things

So got this today, and I really doubt that I’m going to approve it – despite it’s gracious tone! Holes in the wall is especially classy!

 

A new comment on the post #343 "Stupid People Alert: LOE: What do you mean I can get an STD from that???" is waiting for your approval
http://jonwestfall.com/2005/10/stupid-people-alert-loe-what-do-you-mean-i-can-get-an-std-from-that/
Author : STD Testing
E-mail : kiey@anylabtestnow.com
URL    : http://www.prweb.com/releases/std-testing-centers/dallas/prweb3224224.htm

Comment:
This article is good. People should be up front about thier sexuality (man or Woman). Either way both parties should use protection. Holes in the wall to have sex, to me that is just like picking a random person and having sex with them in the alley behind a store.I guess there isn’t anyone who is still in a serious realtioship anymore these days.

PopGUI for PopRoute GUI

/Articles

If you've ever tried setting up an exchange server at your home, small business, or on any server that doesn't have a 100% reliable 100% always-on connection, you've probably needed a tool like PopRoute. PopRoute lets you "pop" your external POP3 accounts and route the mail from them into an Exchange Inbox.  It's perfect for servers that aren't always connected (i.e. dial-up), have a rather shakey connection (making forwarding to the user's exchange email address unfeasible, or for otherwise fine exchange servers with user who stubbornly want their "other" email in their exchange account.

The problem with PopRoute is that, while the price is right, the configuration interface leaves lots to be desired.  Manually editing an INI file is a bit annoying, and since PopRoute requires that mailboxes be numbered sequentially in it's configuration, removing mailbox 2 requires on to manually rename atleast adjoining mailboxes.

With that in mind, I coded together PopGUI.  PopGUI lets you administer your poproute.dat file without needing to actually open the thing in notepad and play with it.  The nice thing about PopGUI + PopRoute is that, for an extremely low price, you get the same ease of administration that tools costing $100+ provide.

popgui.jpg

Getting Started

To start using PopRoute + PopGUI on your exchange server, follow these steps



1. Make sure that the Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 is installed on your system, PopGUI uses it, and it's a free download available here

2. Download PopRoute here and extract the files to wherever you like (c:\program files\poproute is the default)

3. Download PopGUI and run the installer

4. Open PopGUI and configure your email accounts & General server settings (I recommend disabling the Archive Directory)

5. Create a scheduled task to run poproute.exe regularly (Whenever you want to download mail).  I've done 5 minutes and 2 minutes before without issue.



PopGUI is Free, however I do request that you register with me.  This way I can keep track of who is using the program (for my own ego's sake) and keep people aprised of any updates.  Rest assured that I have no need, want, or desire to spam you to death, I simply want to know how my program is doing, and have a way to contact users.

Download 1.0

To get a registration key, drop me an email with your name & company. I'll be happy to send you one ASAP!

Continue reading “PopGUI for PopRoute GUI”

Does Spam Work?

/Other Things

One of the most annoying plagues to hit the Internet in the past few years (aside from angst-ridden teenagers on MySpace, YouTube, etc…) is unsolicited commercial email advertising (i.e. SPAM). One argument I hear made time and time again is that the reason SPAM persists is that it works. People actually buy things as a result of Spam ridden emails, and this small (but significant) percentage of the population are responsible for SPAM’s prevelance.

First of all, I don’t blame my fellow man for SPAM in my inbox. I blame greedy sons-and-daughters-of-a-***** that actually run the spamming enterprises. From small time operators to those who command massive amounts of zombie servers that spend all their lives pumping out email (And whatever else their legitimate owners think they are doing). But does SPAM work?

Obviously we can’t look at the sale of Viagra (or Viz AGR@) to determine this. But perhaps their is an indicator.

Recently, a round of SPAM has been spotted as a result of a botnet of zombie computers. This SPAM advertises stocks as “hot” and tries to get people to purchase them. The following stocks are “favorites” of the emails:

* China YouTV Corporation (CYTV)

* CDYV

* PPTL

So I figured I’d run stock quotes on those symbols and see how they’ve been doing over the last 90 days.

PPTL is rather new on the market – here’s it’s graph over the past 5 days that the SPAM has been making the rounds (courtsey of Yahoo!)

The last trade was for $0.01

CDYV is doing a bit lower lately as well.

It hovers around $0.05 – $0.10

And CYTV, the one I hear about ALL THE TIME is doing…

Markedly better since the spam emails hit. It went from around $0.20 to $1.

Now, why is this. Well, a number of things I can think of:

  1. People actually believe the email, feel the stock is HOT and buy it.
  2. People don’t believe the email but figure that enough other people will, so they buy it.
  3. People notice that #1’s and #2’s of the world are buying, so they buy.

So in the end, I reach the conclusion that… yes… spam does work. Ugh! I guess if you’re a day trader, keep an eye on these three stocks. I will be interested, however, to see how they do after spam filters adapt to them.