Today I have removed the MSFoy email address from my Blogger profile, simply because the amount of spam is getting to be a problem. This is a shame, because I probably get more contacts through email than via the Comments facility.
I've been getting increasing numbers of emails from what appear to be genuine companies, saying how much they admire my blog (well, of course) and would I kindly put a permanent free advert for their products on the blog. First one was from a model shop, which sort of makes some sense, but since then I've had all sorts of rubbish - clothes shops, the inevitable viagra suppliers, a fast food chain (in the USA), even a firm of ambulance-chasing lawyers. It is obvious from the dumb wording of the emails that these things are computer generated. I've had about a dozen of them in the last week, and that is more than enough.
I don't do advertising on the blog, and if I did it would be for friends, or for money (or both!). If someone uses a robot to email me requesting a link, I'm fairly confident that hitting any link of theirs will get you into some referencing or portal scam site.
Speaking of which, if anyone browsing their Blogger stats notices they have hits from a URL domar.ru, do not click on it to see who/what it is, and do not ever enter this URL into your browser. If you do, you get onto a website for a referencing scam (which appears to be based in Texas), and some creep will tell you that he makes $600,000 a month doing nothing at all, and if you contact him you can make this kind of money and be a creep too. If you click on "No Thanks" you get a message which says "But you are missing the chance of a fortune" or similar, and you may then have to switch off the computer to get away from that screen, and get SpyBot fired up as soon as possible to get rid of the smell.
If you have had domar.ru featuring in your Traffic Sources, it doesn't mean that some unspeakable life form has been looking at your blog and your fave links and the pictures of your kids etc - domar.ru has just hacked into Google's Blogger stats server, and produced spurious hit records exactly so that you will click on it to see who it is.
Back to the email situation - if for any reason anyone does wish to contact MSFoy without publishing a formal Comment, just send a Comment which includes a note that you don't want it published, and include your email address if you want me to get back to you. I'm sorry this is necessary, and it will mean that only people with valid Google accounts can make contact, but on the other hand it probably means that I won't hear from the profane Chuck or the life-threatening foxhole95 again.
In many ways, the world isn't really ready for civilisation yet, I'm afraid.
You and me both, the 'model shop' has a single helicopter on every page, even under 'Dolls' or 'Craft supplies'! The Dorma.ru thing comes as other addresses, so best not click on anything in Stats until Blogger have dealt with it!
ReplyDeleteI have been hit by both as well and it seems most of the Yahoo groups I am a member of have been "attacked" by something similiar in the past. Then we also have the pre-recorded phone calls from ambulance chasing solicitors etc. etc...
ReplyDeleteInteresting - I mainly get bizarre hate mail, though I'm relatively sure that it is from one member of the green ink brigade and not anything larger.
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