October 2009 Archives

Murk-o-sur

16 October 2009 - 07:32 AM | Permalink

Our spamtraps get hit with a fair amount of unsolicited email from Latin America, particularly from Brazil, Argentina and Peru. By and large, this email is from actual businesses (albeit sometimes small or shady ones) rather than pharmacy spammers or penis pill vendors.

Some of the senders are knowingly abusive, as can be seen by the contortions they go through to try to avoid spam-filtering or identification. The word 'publicidad' ('advertising') which several Latin American spam laws require to be included in the subject line of the message, is often permuted in interesting ways. Others actually comply, to a greater or lesser degree, with whatever laws are in force in their country. And then there are the disclaimers ...

Continue reading 'Murk-o-sur'

"opt-out" is not a "policy"

01 October 2009 - 12:29 PM | Permalink

A recent piece of unsolicited email, promoting a Brazilian retailer called Chic Mix, carries the following interesting message (loosely translated from the Portuguese):

Anti-Spam Policy: if you don't want to continue receiving news from Chic Mix, please click here

If you spotted that the words 'anti-spam policy' don't really belong there, give yourself a small prize. Whatever that message is, it's not a 'policy'.

Continue reading '"opt-out" is not a "policy"'


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