85% of all email is spam. 83% of all email is spam. Between 80 and 90% of all email is spam. 80% of all email is spam. 76% of all email is spam. Between 64 and 78% of all email is spam. 64% of all email is spam. 63% of all email is spam. 60% of all email is spam. 52% of all email in 2004 will be spam. 50% of all email is spam. By 2006 98% of all email will be spam.
posted by Mo Nickels on Jul 6, 2004 - 38 comments

The scum behind the spam "These anti-spammers, most of them are unemployed people. . .No life, miserable. They thrive on attention. They have their little newsgroups, and they argue with each other. They're their own worst enemies. I used to care what they think, but not anymore." Now, presumably, Scott Richter may have Metafilter to add to his list of projected insecurities.
posted by crasspastor on Feb 2, 2004 - 38 comments

Clone blogs: spurious blogs that look real, but exist solely to purvey smut in a very shady way. They're becoming ever more clever, those spammers.
posted by moonbird on Nov 17, 2003 - 32 comments

Spammers strike back? Well then call this return of the Webmaster Jedi. As a blogger and domain owner, I am sick of waking up to fifty new comments, all of which are spam for something of dubious legality. The fine folks at Kalsey are angry too. And they declared war. Lots of people stood up and took notice. What can you do to help stop this infestation? Blacklists and Bayesian filtering come to mind... (Via Smart Mobs)
posted by swerdloff on Nov 11, 2003 - 22 comments

Kook; thickhea having mermenta: cockeyed Follow the links and see if you can figure it out. I can't.
posted by oissubke on Aug 21, 2003 - 20 comments

"Pick. Lock. And Load. It's like flicking a booger at spam." (from linkfilter)
posted by limitedpie on Jul 28, 2003 - 28 comments

Beginner's guide to trackback. Old news to most here, but with even Radio Userland now implementing the technology, trackback has the potential to be another kind of spam, with gratuitous self-links popping up all over the place. When everyone can blog, will the Blogosphere be the next victim of Usenet's neverending September? Whether providing "community support" or "publishing tool", how long before popular bloggers are forced to implement Bayesian trackback filters?
posted by cbrody on Jul 22, 2003 - 10 comments

If someone says spam, tacky unsolicited emails usually come to mind instead of that meat product. Watch Hormel fight back to assert their trademark rights.
posted by illusionaire on Jul 10, 2003 - 14 comments

So you’ve just received a junk email encouraging you to visit a website for some irresistible pornography or to consolidate your debts! Well, it’s time to oblige the people who fill your mailbox with spam. Let FriedSPAM visit their sites for you -- about a million times! After all, you are only doing what the spammers are asking you to do. (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
posted by gottabefunky on Jun 24, 2003 - 27 comments

Like most Nigerians, you're probably finding that it's increasingly difficult to earn a decent living from email. That's why you need to attend the 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference.
posted by Wet Spot on Jun 12, 2003 - 6 comments

Photos of neked boys popping up during your powerpoint presentations at work? Could be a computer virus.
posted by found missing on Nov 23, 2002 - 27 comments

Referer Log Spam. Seen this url in your logs yet? They're actually trying to get people to pay them to put bogus urls in your referer log. As if we weren't swimming in spam already.
posted by fraying on Oct 24, 2002 - 43 comments

There's a reason why you've been getting those 'RapeMaster' spam ads although we're not sure why, but alot of weird stuff is popping up in spam. I could live without ads for 'farmer girl on cow' sites.

To heck with thinking this out, it's obviously a massive conspiracy involving the Government, Government Ops, Ariel Sharon, the CIA, the Queen of England, Mothers who post bikini pics for pedophiles, Wired.com, Capitol Hill Blue and other forms of media to discredit the Internet while using the Internet to do it.

Anyways, what sorts of weird 'GovOps' spam are you getting in your mailboxes?
posted by RobbieFal on Sep 30, 2002 - 10 comments

Spam King Living High In The Bayou Ronnie Scelson, a professional spammer, openly discusses his business and attitudes about spam. Reminiscent of Barry Dennis's infamous "Why I love spam" article recently featured on C|Net.
posted by dayvin on Jul 1, 2002 - 33 comments

If only I can dream. Okay, everyone listen up. I had this great idea last night -- first, I'm going to purchase a 144 ft. yacht. No, better yet, someone else will purchase the yacht for me. Then, I'm going to sail from Australia to Greece, stopping in 65 countries. Also, I will producing eight highly anticipated television shows along the way. It's going to be great! Okay, who's on board? Anyone? Hey, where's everyone going? Hello?
posted by aaronchristy on Apr 28, 2002 - 26 comments

Email harvester poorly disguised as cute girl who started emailing her friends about great deals (and other interesting tidbits) that she found on the 'Net after she was laid off from her dot-com job. I can't believe anybody would fall for this, but I might just be angry about some one using such a nice name for evil.
posted by jennyb on Apr 18, 2002 - 24 comments

The Society for the Prevention of Art Monstrosities - for those who like their satire cerebral.
posted by chrisgregory on Feb 20, 2002 - 3 comments

Bernard Shifman is a moron spammer. I love detailed spam wars that are this fully documented. Any other ones come to mind? link via GMSV
posted by machaus on Jan 8, 2002 - 24 comments

Amazon spamming search engines? Looking around for reviews on Cooper tires, I came across 2 links in the top 20 search results on Google for sites that look legitimate, but are actually redirect pages to Amazon.com (which doesn't even sell auto tires!). What's going on here? Since when is it legitimate for large corporations to spam search engines!??
posted by yarf on Dec 21, 2001 - 43 comments

Help say NO to terrorism ... then say yes to an in-box full of crap. Some spam sent me here. Nowadays, 'evil' seems like too strong a word for this sort of thing, but it's not far off the mark.
posted by davidfg on Oct 3, 2001 - 5 comments

Spam is killing Micronesians. The kind in a can. Spam, not Micronesians. (via Arts & Letters)
posted by luser on Jun 4, 2001 - 4 comments

Rep. Bob Barr (Georgia) in full support of Spam The title says it all. But read his reasoning. He would rid us of Clinton but protect the right of business to annoy us with spam.
posted by Postroad on May 11, 2001 - 25 comments

Spam vengeance feels oddly satisfying; a simple click costs spam software companies from a few pennies to a few dollars.
posted by greensweater on May 9, 2001 - 27 comments

Vigilante against spam: "A self-appointed global army has taken on the mass Internet mailings that annoy users and crash systems. It is a demanding and risky hobby."
posted by paladin on Apr 16, 2001 - 11 comments

What Would This Do To the 'Net? Would such legislation be Constitutional?
posted by ParisParamus on Mar 28, 2001 - 13 comments

Slow Dance. Saw this "Poem to the Editor" in the paper version of this community rag. Supposed to be written by "a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital."
posted by kcchip on Mar 26, 2001 - 5 comments

Network Solutions sells out. The once-monopoly has decided to pool all their domain name registration information and sell it to the spammers of the world. From their marketing website, "Taking advantage of our position as a market leader, we have organized our pool of over 15 million registered domain names into a customer database of over 5 million unique customers. Our data service offers access to the key decision-makers behind millions of leading Web businesses."

True, there is a privacy policy, and you can try and protect yourself following their instructions, but it would seem that once the cat's out of the bag... And, what's to keep someone from purchasing the database of email addresses, fax numbers, telephone numbers, and addresses and selling them off to someone else?
posted by warhol on Feb 15, 2001 - 35 comments

campusnut.com is using a dirty way to draw traffic to their site. Do your part and send a nasty email to the "CEO" of campusnut.com.
posted by cmicali on Nov 29, 2000 - 8 comments

The GOP just spammed me. I received an email sent supposedly on behalf of "Jim Nicholson, Chairman, Republican National Committee" inviting me to become an "eChampion":

Once you've registered as an eChampion, you will receive fact-filled e-mails twice a week on the upcoming election, the candidates' stands on issues, etc. Your role as an eChampion is to send these e-mails on to AS MANY friends, neighbors and family members as possible, and invite them to register as eChampions themselves at http://www.echampions2000.com.

No, I didn't opt-in to some Republican mailing list. For a start, I'm Canadian, in Canada, and if I was going to vote for a right-wing wing-nut, it would be Stockwell Day. Talk about "idea viri"...
posted by tranquileye on Oct 10, 2000 - 6 comments

Fight spam with silly human tricks! This service is built around a low rent Turing test. Anyone who is not already on your list of approved correspondents gets their message bounced back to them. If the poor sod can't pass a "fast and simple" challenge, their mail won't be passed on to you as they'll be presumed to be a spambot. I use Pine: I guess I'd fail. (Found via Webmonkey).
posted by maudlin on Oct 5, 2000 - 12 comments

Jakob Nielsen: Internet Guru, (Possible) Inventor of Spam
(via CamWorld)
posted by tamim on Sep 18, 2000 - 12 comments

In honor of our FAVERite spammer, mspansel, we hardly knew you...
posted by Avogadro on Aug 21, 2000 - 1 comment

There's no reason they shouldn't be able to do this, but I still want to hurt them. (Via memepool).
posted by aflakete on Jul 29, 2000 - 5 comments

Wish I'd Said That Dept.
If the privacy-invaders are going to collect so much information on me, why can't they seem to USE IT?
posted by wendell on Jul 21, 2000 - 4 comments

Yummy: Spammer on Toast! Forget Microsoft. I'm more excited about the breakup of Rodona Garst's spamming business. Her ICQ message logs, legally incriminating personal files and bare-ass photo are all over the Web today.
posted by rcade on Jun 7, 2000 - 8 comments

Here come de' spam. Here come de' spam...
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jun 5, 2000 - 0 comments

Can the internet police itself given a little time and some smart people working on it? Or do we need some kind of law? The war on spam continues.

I personally find reporting spammers and getting them whacked by their ISP fun. I'm not much of an outdoorsy type, though.
posted by flestrin on May 9, 2000 - 8 comments

Cell phone spammers will be hated more than email spammers, but I just hope someone stops Plugout.com before some competitors think it's a good idea.
posted by mathowie on Apr 11, 2000 - 3 comments

The Washington State Anti-Spam law found unconstitutional because the person named in the suit was in Oregon, and the law can't be enforced across state boundries. Damn. As if your location means anything on the internet. What a lame ruling.
posted by mathowie on Mar 28, 2000 - 8 comments

So I just got a bizarre e-mail from a "Yustas Kotz-Gottlieb." Has anyone ever got one? I'll post the entire text as a comment. It appears to be an atrocious, perhaps Mad Lib-generated essay on an imaginary painting. Based on an AltaVista search for "Jaisini," I've concluded that this person posts the essay (and others) on random guestbooks and e-mails it to random people (like me). This is the closest I can find to a cogent explanation, but I'm still bumfuzzled as to the point. Fake essays as performance art? It's like McSweeney's, as guest-edited by Kafka.
posted by luke on Mar 24, 2000 - 2 comments

I have seen the future of advertising, and it is PP * blog. My ultra-top-secret advertising scheme is finally let out of the box. Okay, so it might not be the future of advertising, but it IS a sleezy scheme on my part to help get both me AND you more visibility in the weblog dept.
posted by premiumpolar on Mar 21, 2000 - 8 comments

Log spam, a new trend? Within the last hour I received two requests from loggers to visit their web site. The first one sent a regular and kind e-mail message, actually addressed to me. No problem with that. But the second one seemed to be a mass mailing, correct me if I'm wrong. I hope this doesn't become a habit among loggers who claim they have 'trouble breaking into the 'blogger community'.
posted by prolific on Jan 26, 2000 - 11 comments

Although this is dated, it is still interesting. The long-story-short is someone left some spam out on a plate to see if would ever decompose. This person also left out other items for comparison. Check out the archived experiments for past projects and notes.
posted by mathowie on Oct 13, 1999 - 0 comments

This new inforrmational site actually looks like an interesting place to read about all sorts of topics, BUT they told me about through multiple copies of spam. When are companies going to get it? Spam is worse than a telemarketer waking you up at 6am on a Saturday! Oh yeah, they're also destined to fail because they are charging for their information (*cough* Slate.com *cough*). Good luck infostry!
posted by mathowie on Oct 9, 1999 - 0 comments

In the 'Automakers that don't get it' file comes this. Saab USA is spamming people to tell them about their new cars. Great, thanks to Saab USA's inept marketing department, I'll never buy a Saab in my entire life.
posted by mathowie on Aug 28, 1999 - 2 comments