sms spam · 1,250 words · Viewed ~334 times
Earlier this year, I received SMS Spam from Paddy Power. I went into full-on Taken mode! I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for spammers like them ☺ It culminated with barrage of complaints and an interview on BBC Radio 4. A few months on, it's time to see what my complaining has achieved. First up, a p…
Continue reading →android emoji google spam · 5 comments · 550 words · Viewed ~9,238 times
What could be worse than email spam? Animated gifs in the subject line of email spam! This is a trend I've recently started to see on Gmail - here's what it looks like and how it works. So, what's going on here? How have they got an animated image into the subject line? Here's the raw text of the message's subject line: …
Continue reading →BBC Interview dma legal sms spam · 250 words
Earlier this week I appeared on BBC Radio 4's "You And Yours" to talk about the scourge of SMS Spam. You can listen to it on their website - or, if it has expired, I've grabbed an audio clip for your listening pleasure. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. I've asked the Direct Marketing Associate to create a "Do Not Text" list - so that people can opt-out of spam SMS. They already opera…
Continue reading →dma ico pecr sms spam · 9 comments · 2,100 words · Viewed ~4,532 times
This is a cautionary tale of how my personal details have been repeatedly sold and resold by a British network of spammers - each of them turning a blind eye to the provenance of their data. I'm calling on the Direct Marketing Association to create a universal opt-out file - just like they do with junk mail and nuisance calls - to prevent people receiving spam via SMS. Like lots of people, I…
Continue reading →graph python spam twitter · 13 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~51,521 times
Recently I've been plagued with Tweets saying that I'm "trending in London." As flattering as that is, it's not true. There appears to be a network of Twitter bots which are randomly repeating other people's tweets, ripping off avatars and bios, and generally causing a nuisance. Looking at the users' Twitter name, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that "ekip_uhokoqeq" and…
Continue reading →security spam web · 1 comment · 450 words · Viewed ~296 times
Running a website is hard. Let me clarify - setting up a website is dead simple - keeping it running and updated is tricky. Now, for some of us, it doesn't really matter whether our sites live or die. But for big companies like McAfee it's not simple to switch off a site - especially when they've promised to keep it running in perpetuity. For some reason, the world's largest computer security …
Continue reading →facebook spam · 1 comment · 400 words · Viewed ~1,199 times
I got into an argument with a friend a few weeks ago. I was complaining that I really didn't like the spam that Facebook shoves into my newsfeed. His argument was - and I paraphrase... I don't mind the occasional advert - between the Farmville notifications and "inspirational" quotes, I barely notice them. For me, this was quite the shocker. I don't see game invitations. I rarely see…
Continue reading →email opt-out spam usability · 500 words · Viewed ~974 times
Hanlon's Razor states, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." It would be nice to think that all mistakes and errors we encounter are just the result of bone-headedness. Sadly, that's not the case. Quite often malicious people deliberately try to trick you into taking actions you would normally have ignored. In usability, we call this a "Dark Pattern". A …
Continue reading →gov.uk security spam Unsecured State · 6 comments · 1,150 words · Viewed ~1,676 times
This is part 5 of a series of blog posts looking at the security of the UK Government's web infrastructure. The primary cause of the vulnerabilities I've exposed over this series is abandonment. In a flurry of excitement a website is commissioned and created. Then, as time wears on, people begin to drift away from the project. Job titles change, people are reshuffled, and senior…
Continue reading →gov.uk government security spam Unsecured State · 5 comments · 800 words · Viewed ~5,157 times
This is part 4 of a series of blog posts looking at the security of the UK Government's web infrastructure. Over the last few days, I've shown that hundreds of websites run by branches of the UK state are in a perilous state of disrepair. There are multiple sites with hugely embarrassing XSS flaws, running ancient and unsecured software, languishing unmaintained and long since abandoned. What …
Continue reading →pinterest spam twitter · 250 words · Viewed ~213 times
I've started seeing an uptick in Twitter spam - ostensibly from my friends telling me I can make money online. The common denominator is that they all use Pinterest as a vector for spreading the spam. Looking at the accounts of people who have recently tweeted these or similar messages, shows that the majority are real people - not automated spam-bots. So how is this happening? Checking the …
Continue reading →messagelabs spam symantec · 28 comments · 1,000 words · Viewed ~129,718 times
Updated - see end of post! I am not a happy bunny. Last year, while trying to buy a house, Symantec's MessageLabs decided to block my Estate Agent and my bank from receiving any emails from my personal domain. In the middle of a rather stressful house purchase, I had to swap my email addresses and convince the parties involved to all to use the new one. This year, they're blocking me from…
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