Spam 419/Nigeria Online fraud jwSpamSpy Contact
Email Spam Filter: |
|
|
Spam from SMS.AC - who are these guys?
On 2005-02-28 I received the following spam from a company called sms.ac.
From: <glennaikalogatoc@invitation.sms.ac>The above email attempts to deceive by displaying the sender name as the adressee, but the email address behind that is actually my address. This may be an attempt to obscure the fact that the sender of the email didn't know my full name, only my email address (which spam software can illegally harvest from websites in an automated way). Emails with a recipient that consists only of an address, without a full name, tend to get penalized by spam filters and these guys seem to be aware of that.
To: "glenn aika logatoc" <joewein@pobox.com>
Sent: Monday, 28 February, 2005 9:01
Subject: glenn aika logatoc's invitation
glenn aika logatoc has invited you to join his mobile friends network.
Simply click the link below to confirm your relationship with glenn aika.
http://www.sms.ac/registration/intro.aspx?inviteid=7fhpw0y09f00d9gmw37l0h5bb86955plni9tmo2k43w&r=0
Don't want to be invited by your friends?
Click on the link above to "block future invitations" from family and friends.
SMS.ac, Inc., 7770 Regents Road, Suite 113-405, San Diego, CA 92122 USA
In any case, I don't know anybody by the name "Glenn Aika". Logatoc seems to a town in the Philippines, where I have no personal contacts.
Why would someone who doesn't even own a mobile phone get an invitation to communicate by SMS with a person he/she never heard of before? Note also that this message reveals nothing about the sender of the "invitation".
I did a Google search on this company and frankly, the results that come up are not too reassuring. Read and judge for yourself:
Older version of the spam (2005-01-28):
Hi *****
I reserved you a free SMS.ac account-- now you can send free text (SMS) messages to mobile phones.
All you need to do is click on the link to complete your sign-up. Don't worry it's quick. :-). ttp://www.sms.ac/registration/Intro.aspx?InviteId=iv1md6409x00t6qv5oy8g6y8rq73okh7v342g0w65rsw7x2gl
If you are already a member, click on the link and sign-in. As soon as you sign-in, you and I will be automatically placed in each other's "friends" list and address books. ttp://www.sms.ac/login.asp?referer=addafriend&inviteid=iv1md6409x00t6qv5oy8g6y8rq73okh7v342g0w65rsw7x2gl
Let's catch up using text (SMS) messages!
Thanks, ******
Anti-Spam Resources:
jwSpamSpy is spam filtering software (Now available!)
Anti-spam domain blacklist – list of domains that I refuse to receive mail from
Recent additions to domain blacklist (with whois details)
"419" scam sender/contact addresses ("Nigeria connection" address book)
DNS-based IP and domain name blacklists
Dynamic IP addresses (700 KB!)
Free email providers
How to trace senders of spam
Link exchange offer spam
Getting creative with spam
Smyrnagroup spammers (in German)
Lookup an IP address on blacklists (http://dnsbl.net.au/lookup/)
AOL dial-up address ranges and mail servers