Too Good to Be True?

[rowyn]

Has anyone else noticed a dropoff in spam lately?

I've never gotten tons of spam -- not even enough to warrant a spam flter. About 2-5% of it was stuff I'd signed up for, or at least that the sender could argue I'd signed up for. (I don't recall ever asking Snood or Puzzle Pirates or EverQuest to send me anything, but I did buy a product from them and it's not like they email more than a few times a year, so no big deal.) 8-15% was stuff someone else signed me up for because, apparently, she can't remember her own email address and gives mine out instead. The other 80-90% was incomprehensible crap. Several varieties of incomprehensible crap: advice for my sex life (or possibly soliciting my advice for theirs, it's hard to say), offers of penis enlargements, breast enlargements (not feeling a need for either, k thx), Viagra, porn, faux Paypal emails, scams pretending to be from banks I don't even have accounts with, etc. (I even got a couple pretending to be from my own back, which only has 11 branches and which I would not have thought worthy of a spam-based scam.) You know. Spam.

But a couple of weeks ago, everything in that last 80-90% category ... stopped. At first I didn'} really notice. I was still getting some unwanted email, although not nearly as much, and I thought, "maybe it's just a slow day." But it's continued. I can leave my email open and when I get a new message, there's a good chance it's actually a message for me. Even the unwanted stuff has sources I know instead of "nccookie007" or "Booker T. Jumprope"

What happened? Did I wake to a blissful alternate universe where spam doesn't exist? Did my ISP invent a miracle anti-spam filter and install it without fanfare? Were all the spammers obliterated by an act of divine justice?

Or is this simply a lull before the storm: "The Spammers Strike Back"?

Is anyone else getting less spam lately?

Comments

[verminiusrex.livejournal.com]

The tide of spam comes and goes for me. If I properly mark the incoming spam I think it helps the filters, and it will drop down but at some point the spammers discover another way through the filters and the tide rises for awhile.

[dajagr.livejournal.com]

Myself, I've been getting a lot more lately. Did your ISP start including spam filtering or something?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I can't say the same. Maybe your ISP installed some anti-spam filters.

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

I've been getting a lot more spam lately in Yahoo for some reason.

[kagetsume.livejournal.com]

I was getting a ton of spam for the past month, then it just suddenly stopped this week. No idea why.

[zorkfox.livejournal.com]

For months after starting my new job I got NO spam whatsoever. Then one day... it started. We have a lot of inept franchisees who don't know their computer from HAL, so they're loaded down with viruses and spyware.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Noooo... I get lots of spam trying to sell me w4tches. Which I always read as "witches", and ... yeah, I'd like some more witches in my life, preferably from a less bitey tradition than the Minoan.

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

I've been getting a lot more lately.

It was down to a couple messages a day, then it went up to 25. This is on my work account, which is also the email I give to my family. I'm fairly convinced one of them has a virus/Trojan that is going through their email addresses and pulling mine out. It coincides with one of those typical emails that family like to forward around. The Chain-spam, send to ten of your friends.

I can't think of ten friends, at least ten friends that would still be friends after I sent one of those out. There are some acquaintances I could share the love with.