Beware of bogus "Account Disabled" Spam emails

[bluegum]

I woke up this morning and checked my email and just about had a heart attack when I received what looked like an official "Account disabled" message from Adsense. But, scroll down, and it turns out that the message is an add for a service that supposedly offers invalid click prevention for Adsense publishers. This is sleazy and totally unethical way of promoting their product, which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

So just a heads up. If you receive what looks like an Account disabled message, be sure to scroll down to check that it is not one of these spam messages before hitting the panic button.

[Lame_Wolf]

If you use mailwasher, you can bounce spam emails and never have to download them. Also, it will show the true URL of a link - therefore avoiding cardiac arrests :)

[tim222]

Spammers have no morals. This doesn't surprise me a bit. Unfortunately it also wouldn't surprise me if enough people fall for it and the trick is successful.

[bluegum]

Yes, the email claims that the company means no harm but they felt it necessary use "extreme measures" such as this email to make people realize that they need to protect their accounts by using their service. Yeah right! But, as you say tim222, there will be some who are likley to fall for it.

[IanCP]

If you use mailwasher, you can bounce spam emails

In this case probably yes but, in most other spam instances I'd say no because they've spoofed some other unsuspecting persons email address.

I gave up bouncing for that reason years ago.

Mailwasher, wouldn't leave home without it.

[incrediBILL]

I don't bounce, I either REJECT or DELETE.

Bounce requires emails to download into your server first, then you attempt to "bounce" them back, and of course the email address is bogus so your server clogs up trying to bounce tons on non-existent junk.

I either reject them at the point they are attempting to be delivered using DNSBLs and SPF or they get deleted if some other process detects garbage after downloading, never bounced.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 2:45 am (utc) on June 18, 2009]

[signor_john]

I use Onlymyemail (a PC Magazine "Editor's Choice" service) that filters spam on its server, so that my e-mail client (Outlook) receives only the messages that Onlymyemail has identified as being legitimate. I can glance at the filtered e-mails' headers remotely before deleting them en masse. The service works quite well and costs only a few dollars a month for a personal account (which is good for up to three e-mail addresses and several hundred e-mails per day). It also has Webmail, which is nice for travel because it consolidates e-mails from several different accounts.

[koan]

Spammers have no morals.

Since they have no qualms with sending mass emails that people haven't solicited and clogging up servers, it stands to reason that whatever follows is going to be fraudulent or really crappy. They are, after all, cyber criminals.

I wish them all stiff prison sentences.

[farmboy]

You guys may not realize the opportunities you're missing by blocking all those incoming emails.

Did I tell you about my new Nigerian friend/investment partner?

FarmBoy

[netmeg]

If any of you who received the email would like to let the company know exactly what you think of them, go hunt up jensense's blog; she posted an entry about it, and the guy showed up on her blog to defend his position (basically - people need this service, and they're AdSense users, so it can't be considered spam) Having had his behind handed to him, he claims he won't comment anymore but I'd be willing to bet he'll be reading.

[tim222]

I just got my first look at the text of the letter over on Jensense. I hope Google sues the person who did this.

[tim222]

Actually anyone who received the email might be able to sue. Since they basically outed themselves in a public forum, they should be easy to identify.

I'm under the impression that Californians can sue for $500 per email, although I'm not positive. Check your local laws.

[IanCP]

Did I tell you about my new Nigerian friend/investment partner?

Reminds me of a friend of mine, who introduced me to a friend of his, who had a part time hobby on the internet long before blogs were invented. This was years ago.

He would actually reply to some of these scammers and string them along. His ultimate goal was always to see how long he could keep it going [in months] before they woke up. His directory page actually included a "score sheet".

Every exchange of emails was faithfully posted to his site in this special directory.

Believe it or not, it was actually hilarious. Then again he always claimed that he had a perverse sense of humour.