Flood of spam?

[MyNameHere]

There's a flood of pharma spam in my Held Mail nominally coming from Yahoo accounts (I haven't bothered to verify where it's really coming from). Also a larger than normal number of sex-related spam.

Looking at the stats, it looks like there is a difference in the past few days--not in the peak submissions but the valleys have risen, more spam being submitted during the normally "off" hours.

Any idea what this is from? Just another spambot net gone wild?

[dra007]

It has gone wild for a couple on months, you are just seeing the end of the Tzunami...

[Farelf]

...Any idea what this is from? Just another spambot net gone wild?

Stating without any real evidence, it is my impression there is always a spambot running wild somewhere - but the effect is variable across the internet. The monthly spamstats (to give a bit of perspective - http://www.spamcop.net/spamgraph.shtml?spammonth) show the only feature that really stands out is that the daily spikes over the past week-8 days seem a little higher than usual. This apparently doesn't scale up on the much lager sample 'seen' by IronPort/SenderBase - http://www.senderbase.org/home/detail_spam...een=&order= - the daily levels have trended downwards to unusually low numbers. There doesn't seem to be any relationship between what an individual experiences and the general trends. The mass of spam is simply so huge it can easily contain pockets at the detailed level which are contrary to the larger movements. 82 billion per day is low? Yep, sure is.

[MyNameHere]

Oh, well. I guess I'm just in a particularly stormy area of cyberspace.

Thanks!

[dra007]

Yeah...you would need to appeal to the chaotic theory to make sense of the variables...keep reporting every spam you get and eventually the spam will dwindle..

[petzl]

Yeah...you would need to appeal to the chaotic theory to make sense of the variables...keep reporting every spam you get and eventually the spam will dwindle..

I agree however it does not apply to Brazil.

I've either been listwashed by spammers or I've killed them

Brazil is the exception. Not that they get through SpamCop emails filtering system

[Farelf]

I agree however it does not apply to Brazil.

I've either been listwashed by spammers or I've killed them

Brazil is the exception. Not that they get through SpamCop emails filtering system

Interesting petzl, if there were any holdouts I would have thought China or the Ukraine or whatever. But it's Brazil. As usual, the 'helicopter views' we have give no insights.

Talking of helicopter views (and the perils of geolocation), SenderBase currently reports one 'virus threat' from Australia - supposedly located half-way between Indulkana and Mimili in South Australia. That's right about here (Google Maps). Absolutely nothing there, not even a passing dingo. Who says these sods have no sense of humour? And impressive skills to throw up that location.

[petzl]

Interesting petzl, if there were any holdouts I would have thought China or the Ukraine or whatever. But it's Brazil. As usual, the 'helicopter views' we have give no insights.

Talking of helicopter views (and the perils of geolocation), SenderBase currently reports one 'virus threat' from Australia - supposedly located half-way between Indulkana and Mimili in South Australia. That's right about here (Google Maps). Absolutely nothing there, not even a passing dingo. Who says these sods have no sense of humour? And impressive skills to throw up that location.

I'm pretty convinced the spam is from Brazil (news reports also confirm Brazil as new spam king

Aside from reports going to Brazil it's written in Portuguese

As for South Australia their are some large military bases near/around there Woomera has been active recently

[Emerson Prado]

I already got good results reporting Brazilian spam. A couple providers wrote me* just to state they cancelled the offender's account and to thank for reporting abuse. Also, my spam receiving rate has lowered quite a bit - from around 10-20 to 3-5 spams per day, after several months of intense reporting. Maybe spammers don't like spamming those who report them.

But there are issues there seems to be no action about, like this one: http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=11344.

It's interesting to think about the stats. Well, 1 million spams per second is a low rate... Gosh!

But it's more interesting to think we can fight it. Pls have patience and shoot fast.

BTW, I'm Brazilian. Sad to know so much junk comes from here.

Best regards,

Emerson

*Do you use munged reports? I don't, since spammers can track the message down anyway, and I declared war on them .

[Farelf]

I'm pretty convinced the spam is from Brazil (news reports also confirm Brazil as new spam king...

Hey, good information in that link (others might like to know the link goes to Forbes) - though the journalist's assumption that the Brazilians are just innocent victims pulled into the botnets that bedevil us all is a bit suspect in the light of your own observation that the spam is in Portuguese. Sounds like some at least of the botnets are homegrown.

...*Do you use munged reports? I don't, since spammers can track the message down anyway, and I declared war on them .

I like your spirit Emerson, and I'm with you - I use no munging. Don't get too excited about an initial reduction in spam (or more importantly don't get too disappointed if the numbers come back again). Reductions may or may not be due to your reporting (which is worth doing in any event, in my opinion) but the numbers for most members ebb and flow regardless. There's an awful lot of spam out there and we do good by killing some of it and by resisting that wasteful, senseless, sometimes dangerous pollution choking the internet.

[turetzsr]

<snip>

the journalist's assumption that the Brazilians are just innocent victims pulled into the botnets that bedevil us all is a bit suspect in the light of your own observation that the spam is in Portuguese. Sounds like some at least of the botnets are homegrown.

<snip>

...However:

• Were I a Brasilian (Emerson, you have to learn to spell the name of your country correctly! <g> LOL! ref: Wikipedia entry for Brazil) spammer, I'd send English, not Portuguese!
  
• Were I a non-Brasilian spammer sending spam via a BotNet comprised of compromised Brasilian PCs, I would send Portuguese. Are the Portuguese spams in correct colloquial Brasilian Portuguese?
  

[petzl]

...However:

• Were I a Brasilian (Emerson, you have to learn to spell the name of your country correctly! <g> LOL! ref: Wikipedia entry for Brazil) spammer, I'd send English, not Portuguese!
  
• Were I a non-Brasilian spammer sending spam via a BotNet comprised of compromised Brasilian PCs, I would send Portuguese. Are the Portuguese spams in correct colloquial Brasilian Portuguese?
  

I can't read Portuguese at all?

Here are a couple typical of the flood of rubbish sent

http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z4049487321z6...;action=display

http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z4047016404z9...;action=display

I don't believe Brazil does anything but ignore abuse reports (I do not send munged reports, which is possibly/probably why more Brazilian spammers get my email address)

[Farelf]

• Were I a Brasilian (Emerson, you have to learn to spell the name of your country correctly! <g> LOL! ref: Wikipedia entry for Brazil) spammer, I'd send English, not Portuguese!
  

...

Well, wouldn't that be Português not Portuguese then?

...Are the Portuguese spams in correct colloquial Brasilian Portuguese?

Good question! I'm assuming there's at least as many 'flavors' of colloquial Brasilio-Portuguese as there are of (say) US English but that many English speakers could hazard a fair guess as to the authenticity of a sample of either standard or of colloquial English so, assuming similar in Brazil, Emerson, do petzl's samples give you any indication they are local?

...

Here are a couple typical of the flood of rubbish sent

http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z4049487321z6...;action=display

http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z4047016404z9...;action=display...