http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com Some things I guess; the rest I just make up. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:09:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en E-mail scamming (for 419 frauds, job scams, lottery scams, and the like) is the bush league of internet crime. These folks are audacious, but generally not very smart. Here's a case in point, received just today: Hi, I am a Sponsor of an Internet University. She motivates and train for sucess. She ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=42 One particularly odious breed of internet scammer plays on the desires of lonely single men for female companionship (and the targets of this scam are always men --- I seldom see similar mail from nice young men reaching out to random women). Like other "one-on-one" scams (and unlike most conventional "selling-stuff" spam), ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=23 "Where does a spam message come from?" This question seems as though it ought to be easy to answer, and it can be, but it is a rather vague question, and many people aren't sure what they mean when they ask it. A good first step in understanding the problem of ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=31 Autoresponders are software "robots" that, er, automatically respond to incoming e-mail messages. They are the engines that power a number of popular enhancements to e-mail service. Under normal circumstances, autoresponders work well and cause no one any substantial grief; when spam mail enters the picture, however, autoresponders can go "rampant" ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=30 Wouldn't it be great if you could somehow make yourself invisible to spammers by tricking them (and only them) into thinking that your e-mail address doesn't work? A few well-known e-mail programs and add-on utilities claim to be able to do just that: they offer "bounce" features that let you ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=29 Why do spammers send out their appeals via e-mail? Principally because it is very cheap for them. Why is it so cheap? Although bulk e-mail is not a particularly efficient medium for mass advertising (at least, not from a communications-theory point of view, as we will see), our current e-mail ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=27 May 2, 1978 ... thirty years ago ... James Earl Carter was President of the United States, the Soviet Union was still in business (and poised to launch itself into a tar-baby war in Afghanistan, with a young Osama bin Laden as a foot-soldier in the U.S.-backed opposition), the VW ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=25 After a brief absence (occasioned by personal and business matters), I am back as promised to update the E360 v. Comcast story; it’s a decided setback for E360Insight, LLC, but perhaps somewhat better news for the rest of us who find our in-boxes constantly brimming with unwanted commercial appeals. I’m ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=24 The firm E360 Insight LLC describes itself as “...a marketing solutions company specializing in highly effective, multichannel direct marketing.” At least one of those channels appears to be devoted to litigating against any and all parties who attempt to block its marketing e-mailings. The latest chapter in E360’s continuing courtroom ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=22 Just what sort of a person is a “chickenboner,” and what color hat does he wear? What is an “MX,” and why is going directly to one considered to be bad form? What does one do with something called a “teergrube?” When you’re trying to come to grips with a ... http://www.rickconner.dreamhosters.com/?p=20