Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Is it just me, or has there been a huge increase in the amount of spam since Thanksgiving? I'm also getting many more hits to the comments section of this site. These "hits" are indicative of failed attempts at automated spam.
I suppose I should be happy that the comment spam isn't getting through. Even better, I need to find a way to make the notifications happen only on success instead of every time someone tries. That would make life easier.
And someone has put my e-mail address on an educator's e-mail list. I just keep forwarding them to the FTC. Eventually someone will get the idea that this sort of thing ain't right.
Or not. But it feels good to have at least tried to do something about it.
One of the education spam e-mails is about discipline, presumably in the classroom. But the subject line sort of gives the impression that there's a more kinky discipline involved. Just the crap I don't want to open, thank you very much. I do have an anti-spam tool that allows me to preview a message without actually looking at the HTML and any pictures that may be involved. That helps me determine whether or not a suspect message is spam without actually triggering any trackback widgets or viewing "graphic" graphics.
Still, I really resent that a good portion of my day is spent dealing with spam. I do have to go through the spam traps and make sure that something legitimate didn't get trapped by mistake. Once in a while something does, and sometimes that something is job-related or from a good friend or family member. Spam filters aren't perfect, but they're better than nothing.
Just needed to vent today.