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Spam

Personalized Spam Rising Sharply, Study Finds 142

designperfection9 writes "A new study by Cisco Systems Inc. found an alarming increase in the amount of personalized spam, which online identity thieves create using stolen lists of e-mail addresses or other poached data about their victims, such as where they went to school or which bank they use."
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Personalized Spam Rising Sharply, Study Finds

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  • by alain94040 ( 785132 ) * on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:16AM (#26160073) Homepage

    From the article:

    The latest study was based in part on [Cisco's] ability to monitor 30 percent of all Web and e-mail traffic

    I hope the journalist misunderstood something, otherwise all my fears about the NSA just got crunched.

    --
    iPhone Apps review site [applicationiphone.com] looking for bilingual testers

    • by morgan_greywolf ( 835522 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:25AM (#26160175) Homepage Journal

      Not to worry. The NSA monitors 100% of all Web and e-mail traffic! Thanks to The New AT&T: Your World, Delivered. To the NSA.

  • by unlametheweak ( 1102159 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:22AM (#26160147)

    It's a good thing there is anti-spam legislation.

    • by oldspewey ( 1303305 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @11:35AM (#26161183)

      Your response demonstrates a ...

      [ ] clueless
      [x] sarcasm-based
      [ ] battlescarred
      [ ] well informed

      ... approach to interpreting spam stories ...

    • "It's a good thing there is anti-spam legislation"

      Except the 'anti-spam' legislation, legitimizes spam, provides for safe harbor and prevents the endusers suing the ISPS for fowling their inboxes ..
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Progman3K ( 515744 )

        Except the 'anti-spam' legislation, legitimizes spam, provides for safe harbor and prevents the endusers suing the ISPS for fowling their inboxes ..

        As if regular spam wasn't enough, now I have to worry about 'em jamming chickens into my inbox.

  • by rolfwind ( 528248 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:23AM (#26160155)

    the rise in "security questions" which are essentially weaker passwords. This personalized spam proves getting to much of that info is easy. But now, so often, when I register an account, in addition to a password, there is always a "security password" to null and void that password and get back in easier.

    Some of the better services let you choose your own security password, but others only have a short list of really lame ones (1st car, pet, place of birth) which is not secure at all. I make sure to put in a nonsensical random string as an extra security measure. And this just proves it fallible.

    • by unlametheweak ( 1102159 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:37AM (#26160339)

      The real problem is people visiting Web sites through email links, and replying to unsolicited email (from companies they recognize or not). Banks don't conduct business through yahoo email addresses. The real issue is educating consumers, or having consumers educate themselves. One does not drive a car without knowing the rules of the road (despite what people may think of cliched analogies), and email clients shouldn't be Web 2.0 browsers.

      • by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @11:06AM (#26160743) Journal

        What you are saying is true, but it can't be legislated. It can, however, become a vocation. Yes, for just 3 easy payments of $19.99 we'll teach you how to be safe on the Internet.... blah blah

        An internet driver's license seems like a good idea till you think about all the absolutely retarded drivers you saw on the way home from work recently. Then it sinks in: some people are NOT trainable.

        If you think of the Internet as a huge data warehouse and spend some time with a scripter it will not take long to find out that you can personalize millions of spam emails with little to no effort other than writing a script or two. All you need is for 1-2% of those to reply and enter logon details and you have a profitable business plan, albeit illegal.

        When so little return can still make you profitable, it's hard to discourage spammers. Internet driving licenses would not prevent that 2-5% of the population that can't be taught to tie their shoes from answering unsolicited emails. There is a base or root value where crooks and con artists will always be able to find prey, whether they are selling gilt edged bibles or offering better sex or longer life. Hell, there are those that are flogging lame do-nothing anti-spyware software in an effort to fleece them of their money.

        As long as there are humans and an Internet there will be spam problems. You could even set up a business as an online retailer clearing house where people would send you money to pay for things for them, trusting you to tell them when it is a con job. There are those would would pay for it... say $2.50 per event to be sure they didn't get conned. How's that for a scam?

        See... this problem won't go away anytime soon. Washington? Are you listening? New laws will only make this situation WORSE, not make it go away.

        • I'm certainly not advocating licenses to use the Internet; just education. As for the car analogy; it all depends on the diligence and intelligence one puts into it, and if you aren't sure of yourself then have somebody qualified help you along.

          Best regards,

          UTW

          • by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @11:28AM (#26161095) Journal

            That's the problem. When people delete .dll files from a system directory, do you think that somewhere in their mind is the thought "hmmm, maybe I should get someone who is qualified to look at this?"

            To you and I, this makes sense, but to the great unwashed masses looking at files and configurations inside their PC is about as daunting as trying to fix their tv when the sound stops working. They open up the case, and with screwdriver in hand, start poking around looking at various bits inside the tv. Yes, I'm aware that is a bad analogy, but here's the kicker: if you had to have a screwdriver to get inside your computer's system files perhaps more people would take it to a professional to get it fixed.

            Sidenote: This is one of the things that I think Ubuntu has done right. They made it as easy as possible to be a new user, to install and start using. They also have done what can be done to hide the internals from that user, and to try to prevent that user from having too easy of access to things they really don't need to be messing around with.

            To put it another way, novice skydivers should not pack their own chutes. New drivers should probably never be asked to change a distributor. Novice computer users should not be asked to be administrators. In my home I'm the sysadmin and everyone else are just users who don't have access to much except using the computer. They can't install anything, can't change system settings, nothing. For all that effort, they ask me for something maybe 1-2 times every two months. Most recent was login problems due to disk quota being reached by one user. I had notifications setup incorrectly so didn't get warnings. Click click, problem gone. I really want to figure out how to run a business based on this. A business where normal end users can contract out a sysadmin at reasonable cost.

            • To you and I, this makes sense, but to the great unwashed masses looking at files and configurations inside their PC is about as daunting as trying to fix their tv when the sound stops working. They open up the case, and with screwdriver in hand, start poking around looking at various bits inside the tv.

              Then they touch the CRT, get a massive electrical discharge, and earn a Darwin Award.

        • by oldspewey ( 1303305 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @11:58AM (#26161503)
          Internet driving licenses would not prevent that 2-5% of the population that can't be taught to tie their shoes from answering unsolicited emails.

          That's why we need to get proactive. We need some kind of white hat agency that sends out trojan-riddled spam to everybody on the planet. Those who are sufficiently stupid or gullible will open and act on the spam, which will immediately reconfigure their computer: my recommendation is that it irrevocably turn their machine into a slightly more advanced equivalent of a Fisher Price Activity Center, with lots of shiny buttons and spinning graphics the users can click on but no network connectivity of any kind.
        • You do not need to get ANY replies to make money as a spammer. You just need the fool paying for your services to think there are enough other fools to reply.

          There are plenty of fools who will pay spammers to spam on their behalf. Even if we went five years without anybody responding to spam, we would still get it.

        • The problem with spamming isn't that 1-2% reply and buy, it's that 98% of us ignore it so they endure no penalty. The 98% need to reply and present false information to waste their time which will result in them no longer being profitable. You'll have a short term problem with the fact that your address is now verified but over the long run it will die on its own and spammers give up.

          This is of course easier said than done considering a great many of the links in the emails go to malware ridden sites so yo

          • by cdrguru ( 88047 )

            You are conflating the spammer with the spam contractor. The spammer doesn't see any replies and has no interest in what the response rate might be. The spam contractor probably learns after the first attempt that spam doesn't really work. And moves on to other, more intrusive marketing techniques.

            The problem is the spammer's services are in constant demand. Ever day some new folks decide to cash in on the potential of email marketing. They pay the spammer. As long as they are paying, the spammer has

            • I'm not conflating anything, you stated the end result rather nicely. The spam contractor will move on to something else and thus will end the email clog as fewer and fewer people contract for spam.

              It's a much simpler solution than changing fundamentally how the Internet operates to eliminate the problem when you can simply starve the supply and achieve a specific goal of reduced levels of spam.

              The next technique will have a different solution. We can deal with it when it arrives.

      • "The real problem is people visiting Web sites through email links, and replying to unsolicited email (from companies they recognize or not)"

        No, the real problem is the ISPs not blocking spam from open or unauthorized email relays. And the gazillion compromised desktop PCs out there being used in botnets [arstechnica.com] ..
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by inviolet ( 797804 )

        The real problem is people visiting Web sites through email links, and replying to unsolicited email (from companies they recognize or not). Banks don't conduct business through yahoo email addresses. The real issue is educating consumers, or having consumers educate themselves. One does not drive a car without knowing the rules of the road (despite what people may think of cliched analogies), and email clients shouldn't be Web 2.0 browsers.

        In real life this "don't talk to strangers" / "don't buy from some

      • I say there is no better an education than getting scammed by a Nigerian viagra peddler who will give you 10 million dollars and a penis that could hammer in rail road spikes.

    • by xaxa ( 988988 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @11:14AM (#26160847)

      A bigger problem is when you can't provide a decent, random string for the "security question". I opened a bank account online last week, but had to go to a branch to prove my identity (fair enough). The banker didn't like where her PC said I'd put "438@@/arcCHK" as my mother's maiden name, and asked for a real name. I'm waiting for the online banking activation codes to come through, I hope it doesn't depend on this value.

      • A bigger problem is when you can't provide a decent, random string for the "security question". I opened a bank account online last week, but had to go to a branch to prove my identity (fair enough). The banker didn't like where her PC said I'd put "438@@/arcCHK" as my mother's maiden name, and asked for a real name. I'm waiting for the online banking activation codes to come through, I hope it doesn't depend on this value.

        I'd rather give my SSN then some stupid weak question like that.

        The only reason I'm with Bank of America is because to login to my bank account you have to put in a six digit code that gets text messaged to your phone. I prefer this over "What is your home town?" or something that isn't randomly generated.

        • by xaxa ( 988988 )

          They have the equivalent to my SSN anyway (my National Insurance number), but they'll never ask for that. They just tell the government how much tax I've paid on any interest I earn on the account.

          A text message code is a decent idea, I don't know if any UK banks do that. My current bank asks for two digits from a PIN (not my ATM PIN!), and three characters from my password. If I forget it I have to get another code by snail-mail. If I want to transfer money online to someone I haven't transferred money to

      • The banker didn't like where her PC said I'd put "438@@/arcCHK" as my mother's maiden name, and asked for a real name. I'm waiting for the online banking activation codes to come through, I hope it doesn't depend on this value.

        Maybe you should choose a more intelligent and security conscious bank. Rewarding bad business practices through patronage is just as bad as rewarding spammers by purchasing penis enlargement devices; they are both dubious practices.

        • by xaxa ( 988988 )

          Maybe you should choose a more intelligent and security conscious bank. Rewarding bad business practices through patronage is just as bad as rewarding spammers by purchasing penis enlargement devices; they are both dubious practices.

          I chose the bank because they have an ethical investment policy, and refuse to invest in arms manufacturing, companies that exploit third world countries etc. They don't pay as much interest on savings though, and they have less branches.

          As I said, I haven't got online banking sorted out yet (I only opened the account last week!) but I'll write to them if I don't think their system is secure. They say "our Internet Banking channel has now been recognised by the BSI under ISO27001 the Information Security St

          • I chose the bank because they have an ethical investment policy, and refuse to invest in arms manufacturing

            I obviously didn't refresh the window before I posted. At least you put some thought into things. I'd also advise you to change that security password -:)

            • by xaxa ( 988988 )

              I registered for internet banking tonight. The security is crap, I'll email them after I've written this.

              I phoned up. I asked to register for internet banking. I gave the person my account number. First problem: I'd rather have typed my account number into the phone before I was connected to someone who then knows all my details. He asked for my name, address, overdraft limit and secret name (the one from the GP post) the overdraft limit is the default for the account, which is clearly advertised on the web

          • Thank you for confirming my worries that your system is not secure.

            Sorry, but the ISO27001 is outdated. Why? It's older than a month, so it's outdated. We're talking IT security here.

            • by xaxa ( 988988 )

              Thank you for confirming my worries that your system is not secure.

              Sorry, but the ISO27001 is outdated. Why? It's older than a month, so it's outdated. We're talking IT security here.

              I see your point, but people don't want to change how they log in to their banking every month.

              The security is disappointing though, see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1066923&cid=26176013 [slashdot.org]

      • by sootman ( 158191 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @03:57PM (#26165039) Homepage Journal

        Are you of the Boston 438@@/arcCHKs?

    • My first car was an XQ3'tt9w, my mother's maiden name is 6P$n(we.

      (These being examples, don't even try...)

  • by Boogaroo ( 604901 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:29AM (#26160223) Homepage

    Really, at this point, who is falling for this stuff?
    Even with personalization, I am getting the same "custom" messages from 15+ "female" names.When you get your forula spam message, does anyone click on them anymore?

    Is there still money in spam, other than the money from selling the spam lists and spam network?

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by polle404 ( 727386 )

      Is there still money in spam, other than the money from selling the spam lists and spam network?

      yes there is.
      Unfortunately it only takes very few people buying their products, for it to be profitable.

      IANAS (I Am Not A Spammer), as it is...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 )

      Really, at this point, who is falling for this stuff?

      Seriously? There's a lot of people coming onto the web who have never been there. I was stunned last year when my retired (not computer literate) parents bought a laptop and got a broadband connection.

      Increasingly everyone is being told that if you're not on line you're missing out on something. Unfortunately, the sophistication and knowledge required to do this safely belies the ease with which people can connect and then if they don't know anything a

      • by kabocox ( 199019 )

        Seriously? There's a lot of people coming onto the web who have never been there. I was stunned last year when my retired (not computer literate) parents bought a laptop and got a broadband connection.

        Increasingly everyone is being told that if you're not on line you're missing out on something. Unfortunately, the sophistication and knowledge required to do this safely belies the ease with which people can connect and then if they don't know anything about such things, they're at risk. People just aren't be

    • One sneaked through my Gmail filter last night.

      "Break down walls with your massive c0ck," it said. I'm not sure what Facilities would have to say about that, but clearly this spammer knows all about me. :)

    • They manage to catch me off guard with a new trick or just a convenient circumstance once every couple years. I still remember one of the first big worms that went around when I was in high school, I got an e-mail from this girl I had a nerd crush on promising me some manner of lewd photos. Had I thought about it for a moment I would've realized, but damn skippy I clicked that link inside of two seconds hehe.
    • by Haoie ( 1277294 )

      You only need, say, 1 response in 1000 for it to be profitable.

      Annoying huh?

  • Just a coincidence (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sunking2 ( 521698 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:34AM (#26160269)
    Cisco will soon be introducing a product to address this exact problem!
  • Pretty scary (Score:5, Informative)

    by spyrochaete ( 707033 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:34AM (#26160277) Homepage Journal
    I received one spam email this year which was addressed to me, using my proper first, middle, and last name, as well as my old address back from when I used to live with my parents. The only place I would have volunteered this information online was the Monster job website several years back. I emailed Monster, rather furious at how lax their privacy was. They confirmed that this was their fault but were completely unapologetic.

    Fortunately (I think) I never received a second email like this.
    • by CBravo ( 35450 )

      There are two kinds of spam: spam by known entities and spam by anonymous entities. The first kind should always be targeted by sending a complaint to spamcop.net (because it will blacklist their mailservers which they should care about). 5 complaints and their server is blacklisted for a day and the servers get higher spamcredits.

      You should never respond to the second kind and I think there is not much use in sending a complaint to spamcop (anybody knows differently?).

      I do email-marketing (spam@request) fo

      • The email came from gmail.com. I verified the IP address in the headers and it seems to have really come from Gmail. I reported it to Google but got no reply. Something tells me Spamcop wouldn't be surprised by this.
      • by cdrguru ( 88047 )

        The problem is that SpamCop treats pretty much all spam reports as golden information to be relied upon. So intelligent computer user purchases something on the Web, gets an emailed receipt and reports it as spam. This, being the one and only report, does not carry much weight but it is indeed logged and counted.

        Following this savvy computer user #2 signs up for a mailing list and for some reason then reports all said mailings as spam to SpamCop. Now we have a trend - obviously this organization is a den

        • Spamcop reporters are NOT allowed to support "email they don't like" and lose their reporting privileges if they repeatedly do it.

          That said, it is is somewhat open to abuse. However, there are much more aggressive blacklists out there, and notably Spamcop will automatically remove you from their lists if a day or two goes by and there is no further reports, whereas other lists are near-impossible to get off.

    • by pjt33 ( 739471 )

      When I was young (16) and (more) foolish I was interested in the stock market and registered at the Motley Fool, which for some reason wanted my snail-mail address. Got some amusing snail-mail spam out of that, including one from a fund manager who offered to manage my investments before adding that he only bothered with accounts of £100k or more.

  • by damn_registrars ( 1103043 ) <damn.registrars@gmail.com> on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:39AM (#26160353) Homepage Journal
    Is it really personal spamming? I've seen spam posing as bank notices for a long time. Generally, first you see them (posing to be) from the largest banks, and then over time you start seeing them (posing to be) from regional and local banks as well.

    And considering how many people use online banking, it is pretty reasonable for many people to expect to see an email from their bank on occasion.
    • I think by "personal", more is meant than just appearing to come from your bank. The spammers seem to be getting hold of more personal details of people and targeting those people specifically.

      As for online banking, I know that my banks send me e-mail that basically says "you have a statement/message/notice waiting, please log into your account and check it", and these e-mails generally do not even directly link to the bank's web page.

      My banks all have excellent security, including original/customizable sec

      • I routinely get spam addressed to Mike, which is my name.

        It's kind of creepy really since they ONLY place online I use my real name is my bank website. I guess there is no reason hiding it anymore, since obviously the spammers have it anyway.

        ~Mike

  • by jshackles ( 957031 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:39AM (#26160363)
    How did they know I was looking for penis enlargement pills and cheap viagra?!?!
  • I use email so rarely these days that any piece of email I get which I did not directly request from the sender I treat as suspicious, no matter who sent it. So far it's been proven to be a perfectly valid policy to follow.
  • by Chrisq ( 894406 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @10:42AM (#26160405)

    Personalized Spam Rising Sharply

    Now I am going to be worried every time I get one of those adverts for penis enlargement

    ....who told them?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by jollyreaper ( 513215 )

      Personalized Spam Rising Sharply

      Now I am going to be worried every time I get one of those adverts for penis enlargement ....who told them?

      Data mining. You must have ordered some of those little finger condoms people use in food service to cover up cut fingers and they just assumed it was for something other than food service. I'm still enraged that from my purchase history of metal they were able to decide Madonna's latest would be a good recommended buy for me.

    • by DevConcepts ( 1194347 ) on Thursday December 18, 2008 @11:06AM (#26160747)
      Just got an email...
      With the success of Viagra, many new performance drugs for men go into development:

      --PROJECTRA: Men given this experimental new drug were far more likely to actually finish a household repair project before starting a new one.

      --COMPLIMENTRA: In clinical trials, 82% of middle-aged men noticed that their wives had a new hairstyle. Currently being tested to see if its effects extend to noticing new clothing.

      --BUYAGRA: Married men report a sudden urge to buy their wives gifts after taking this drug for only two days. Still to be ascertained: whether the results extend to not minding when women spend money on themselves.

      --ANTI-AGRA: Promises the exact opposite effect of Viagra. Currently undergoing clinical trials on U.S. Senators.

      --NOSPORTAGRA: This drug makes men want to turn off televised sports and actually converse with other family members.

      --FLATULAGRA: This complex drug converts men's noxious intestinal gases into air freshener.

      --FLYAGRA: This drug shows great promise in treating men with O.F.D. (Open Fly Disorder).

      --LIAGRA: This drug helps men lie more successfully when asked about their sexual affairs. Will be available in Regular, Grand Jury and Political Strength versions.
      • --LIAGRA: This drug helps men lie more successfully when asked about their sexual affairs. Will be available in Regular, Grand Jury and Political Strength versions.

        Forget all those other drugs. I'll take three cases of this and MOAR V14GRA!!!

    • And with the cheap v1@gra, spam won't be the only thing rising sharply.

    • It's a rule [slashdot.org] [general dating rule of thumb] not a word! ;)

      Ready to be standardized by any millionaire on the world! Stay tuned!

  • Dear Viagra user,

    We have a great new product that goes by the name of Cialis ...

  • Poached data, eh?

    And here I thought it was simply common knowledge online that I had a small penis. Go figure.
  • reunion.com (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fprintf ( 82740 )

    My father just kicked off a flurry of spam from his inbox, and I have been helping him to reach out to his entire address book to stop it from spreading any further. According to him:

    "I receieved an email from my dearest friend from England, who I have not spoken to in some time, asking me to join Reunion.com. I clicked on the button in the email and sent me to a site giving me the option to sign up for the service. Until I got your call, I had no idea that it sent out emails to everyone in my address book.

  • is that it will probably increase as more site are electing to run Windows.
    • Yeah, since most SPAM originates from idiots and their home computers.

      More baseless BS from a fanboi.

      --Toll_Free

  • You can't get much more personal than spam that you send to yourself. I'm apparently doing this every night in my sleep, since I can't ever recall clicking Send when I'm awake....

  • There is a surprisingly simple solution to the SPAM problem but no one likes it. Charge to send e-mail. It doesn't have to be much (heck a penny an e-mail would probably suffice).
    • by Haeleth ( 414428 )

      Great idea! And given our global history of perfect peaceful cooperation, I'm sure we'll have no trouble at all persuading every single country in the world to collect one penny from every email sender.

    • by pne ( 93383 )

      Your post advocates a

      ( ) technical ( ) legislative (x) market-based ( ) vigilante

      approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)

      ( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
      ( ) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
      (x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the mone

  • There is really no large qualitative or quantitative difference between e-mail spam and targeted ads nowdays. Both account for a lot of traffic, both are usually not appealing nor desired (targeted ads being generally more intrusive). Why does e-mail spam have a so much worse reputation? Because it's limited to a few daring advertisers I suppose (and you can't have that advertising spot!).
  • What are the ISPs doing about it, such as blocking relaying of spam from open or unauthorized email relays.

  • 99% of the personalized crap is so obvious it doesn't matter.
    Even the bank phishing attempts are funny. An email with my name from a bank I never have done business with is a cause for concern?
    How about those from a bank I never heard of?

    OK folks, how many people had ever heard of The Fifth Third Bank before they saw the phishing email? Raise your hands now.
    That's what I thought.
    • I've heard of Fifth Third. They have branches all over the Cleveland (OH) area...

      • by BCW2 ( 168187 )
        Nobody out of their area had. Who dreamed up such a goofy name? When I saw it I wondered who would do business with one and two thirds of a bank.
        • From Wikipedia:

          Fifth Third's unusual name is the result of the June 1, 1908 merger of two banks, The Fifth National Bank and The Third National Bank, to become The Fifth Third National Bank of Cincinnati. Because the merger took place during a period when prohibitionist ideas were gaining popularity, it was believed that "Fifth Third" was better than "Third Fifth," which could be construed as a reference to three "fifths" of alcohol. The name went through several changes over the years, until on March 24, 1

  • Years ago I started creating online accounts with false names. Well, not false, just ones I found in the local phone book.

    Then my spam filter learned that mails to those phonebook people were unwanted, because nobody I know would mail me something under that name.

    Since those "personalized" spam mails are only so much personalized (i.e. name and maybe a few other tidbits), mails that were sent to my phonebook people were used as patterns to weed out other mail that actually went to my name.

    The most difficult

  • When are they going to get personalized? I guess I don't have enough information out there, because the past few days I got about 50 messages from Hot Chicks who thought I was "hawt" and want to chat on MSN.

    1. I don't advertise on dating sites. Any profile I have is professional, not looking for a bonehead blond.
    2. I am not "hawt" now, nor was I a few decades ago when I was actually available.
    3. You couldn't pay me to use a Microsoft product, and that includes MSN.

    That's 0 for 3 for the most recent spew of spam t

    • Oh, and with this new spurt of spam, my first thought was that there must be some new 0-day method to infect MS users via MSN. Perhaps related to Microsoft's sudden desperate need to patch IE?

      Why don't I miss the pain of using Microsoft? I'm coming up on the 9th anniversary of overwriting my last Microsoft partition (at work no less) - hitting [Enter] at the stroke of midnight, January 1, 2000 (while awaiting the world to end due to the Year 2000 Bug).

    • Finally we're seeing one of our fine pure inbreed slashdotters again ! ;)

      I thougth we were extinct..

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