If it’s not annoying it has to be amusing, right? Spam that is. Now most of the unsolicited email that is sent to me never reaches my in box thanks to the efficient filtering software I am using, plus some nifty scripts run by my ISP.
However the spammers are becoming craftier. In the old days spam was easy to detect as it was usually addressed to bulk recipients. Filtering software could spot this, and mark any such mail for deletion.
To get around this problem the spammers now address mail individually, or rather, they have software that does this. At the moment, the best that people like my ISP can do, is try and spot potential junk mail.
As a result, anything that now breaks through the ISP’s protective barrier shows up on my preview screen prefixed SPAM, as a warning it may be junk. Mostly it is and I delete it immediately, but now and then a subject line will catch my attention. Such as this one:
AMD dimensional warp generator.
I decided to take a closer look at this particular message, it was obviously some sort of gimmick, but the sender’s approach was a little more novel than usual:
Hello,
I’m a time traveller stuck here in 2003. Since nobody here seems to be able to get me what I need (safely here to me), I will have to build a simple time travel circut to get where I need myself. I am going to need an easy to follow picture diagram for a simple time travel circuit, which can be built out of (readily available) parts here in 2003.
Well it just so happens I have what this chap is after, however you require a level six security clearance to be able to view the blueprints. Another thing, I wonder who told this guy I had the device? The rest of his email offered no clues as to how he knew this:
Please email me any schematics you have. I will pay good money for anything you send me I can use Or if you have the rechargeable AMD dimensional warp generator wrist watch unit available, and are 100 per cent certain you have a (secure) means of delivering it to me please also reply.
Takes all sorts doesn’t it? I am curious as to the actual intent of this email though. He wasn’t trying to sell anything upfront, or ask for any personal or financial (eg bank accounts) information. Looks like the poor guy simply wanted to break out of the time warp he has found himself in.
How do people get themselves into these corners in the first place, I ask myself. It must very frustrating being stuck in the same day over and over again, Groundhog day style… he’s going to keep receiving the same spam over and over for one thing.
