Darth Masq, Sith Lord of Philosophy ([info]masqthephlsphr) wrote,
@ 2003-08-20 11:21:00
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Current mood: disgruntled

It's spam day at Yahoo!
I wake up this morning to 15 emails in my Yahoo! in box. I haven't had 15 emails in my inbox since the deep, deep days of the Fanged Four Fic.

None of the emails I got today is by anyone I want to read, with the exception of an almost hidden LJ response from [info]scrollgirl. None of the emails, save Scroll's, is by anyone I know. And they are all empty, some with attachments.

This happens from time to time, there's some weird software bug/virus thingee that sends you an empty email from someone with some funky meaningless subject line, and somehow gets into your address book and spawns a series of empty emails to people on your list (apologies if you get one), then gets into your correspondant's addresss books and spawns more empty emails.

Usually, I get one every few weeks. Today, it's 30+.

Grr. Argh.

Update: Computer Guy at work has sent out an email instructing us all in the use of email filters. I am now dilegently applying his instructions to my Yahoo! account. Take that, "Wicked screensaver" and "My details"!!

Update to my update: Be careful about applying a "send to trash" filter to some spam. If you set up a filter to trash any email with a subject line that contains the words "Thank you" (in an attempt to hose the spam "Re: Thank you") it will trash any email you get after that with the words "Thank you" in it. Not that I get tons of emails with that subject line, but y'know, I do on occassion, get a fan letter or two.



Oh, and today is the last day in amazon.co.uk's dispatching window for my Harry Potter book set. So far, no dispatching....


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It's a virus.
[info]honorh
2003-08-20 11:41 am UTC (link)
I've been getting deluged by the same thing--mostly subject line "Details," followed by a 1k email with an attachment. Deleted!

(Reply to this) (Thread)
I think the trick...
[info]masqthephlsphr
2003-08-20 11:59 am UTC (link)
Is to delete them without opening the email text or (god forbid) the attachment. It's usually easy to spot these sorts of emails due to the meaningless or familiar, repeated subject lines.

But sometimes you're almost tempted to open them because you're afraid it's a genuine email. Then you get the whole process alive and kicking again.

*sigh*

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: I think the trick...
[info]knullabulla
2003-08-20 12:38 pm UTC (link)
Well, if you're not sure about the safety of an email, the best thing to do is to send a quick note to the sender asking if the message is really from them.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
I could...
[info]masqthephlsphr
2003-08-20 12:47 pm UTC (link)
But that would mean sending 30 emails, today anyway.

I did get an email from Earl Allison once asking if I'd emailed him. I hadn't. He'd just been spammed by my spam.

Usually, if I'm genuinely unsure, I open the email (not the attachment). And I'm usually right--no text. But once in a while, it's real.

The downside of having a web site and getting a lot of email from people I don't know.

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