One of the reasons unsubscribing is the wrong approach

found on Izismile

It's better to use disposable forwarding email addresses when you sign up to things. That way you'll still get the emails delivered to your inbox when the service is behaving appropriately, but when they start to misbehave like this you can just nuke the address and never have to hear from them again.

And don't forget to throw away the key

from here and here (image source)

I can't imagine that SPAM would need to be locked up like this (anyone desperate enough to steal SPAM should just be given it), but I could definitely get behind the idea of doing this to the online variety. We'll say "it's for security".

When interests align

from here and here

Advertisers and malware operators are like two peas in a pod. They'll both stuff junk in your inbox to suit their own financial interests without any regard to your wishes. Somehow one is regarded as much worse than the other, though. It's a mystery as to why. One runs their crap on your computer and the other runs their crap in your brain.

Spam by any other name

from here and here

Just when you thought spam had faded away into obscurity, it finds a way to come back in new and unusual places. This is just the beginning. AI-powered machine generated content is going to flood every monetizable avenue you can imagine and some you'd never even guess. So long as there's a way to make money, some people are going to exploit it.

They're hooked on hopium

from here and here

I think this is probably true for just about everyone on the receiving end of spam, which is why the spammers need so much imagination to believe any of us will pay them. The problem is it's not absolutely everyone receiving spam. There are still a few hold-outs, still a few people out there who fork over their hard earned cash on absolute garbage (or maybe it's not hard earned after all and that's why they're so open to wasting it). Those are the people keeping spammers' hope alive.

No wonder we get sick of spam calls

found on Izismile

I suppose it could have been worse. It could have been from Trick Inosis.

In email roulette, always bet on spam

from here and here

I'm probably an outlier in the fact that I never receive actual spam in my Gmail account, but I do get spam false positives just like everybody else. I wish they'd make it easier to check my spam folder since legit email ends up there so often.

Why people give up on answering the phone

found on Acid Cow

I don't answer the phone anymore, and this pretty much sums up why. The spam calls are more frequent than the real ones, so if anyone needs to get in touch with me they need to leave a message 

It's a good thing politicians would never try to spam or scam us

from here and here

Leave it to the "Don't be evil" company to continue to find new ways to be evil. And yes, I know that politicians would in fact try to spam and scam us. The former president and grifter-in-chief already has scammed people by email under the ruse of fighting the election results.

As of writing, there's still time to voice your concerns to the FEC (by email it seems - ao@fec.gov)

It's just for forgotten passwords now

from here and here

Does anyone really use personal email anymore? I keep in touch with people through Facebook or Skype now. Almost no one I know still uses email for keeping in contact with others. The spammers won. They get to rule the inboxes now, and we'll make it a lonely experience for them by leaving them as the only ones left on there. 

What's in YOUR spam folder?

from here and here

Finding an email in your spam folder that says you won the lottery isn't terribly surprising. I'd be more surprised if there WASN'T an email in there telling you that you won. The surprise in this case, however, is that it was real and someone could tell the difference between the genuine article and the spam it's drowning in.

Spam, spam, spam, spam, conservative viewpoint, and spam

from here and here (source article)

You might be thinking that the spam would get caught by the no-illegal-content clause just before the highlighted section, but not all spam is illegal, and with this loop hole the spammers will have a field day.

Spam Wars shirt

Product Page

I certainly don't have any hope that we'll win the war against spam. 

Get it while supplies last

from here

Today I learned that spam volume has dropped significantly in the past 10+ years. 

When cybersecurity marketing goes bad

from here and here (source: my inbox)

Is it legit? Were they spoofed? I don't know and I have no intention of looking more closely at the unwanted message to find out. It turns out Fishtech Group is a real cybersecurity organization and it should not come as a surprise that unsolicited email is not a good way for such an organization to raise awareness of their offerings. 

What could possibly go wrong?

from here

Even after changing direction they still don't seem to be thinking about spam. If someone can send harassing content then they can also send any other kind of unwanted content. In fact the attempt to connect itself may be unwanted. I can't tell you how many times I've seen emails from people at other businesses wanting to connect for business purposes. In theory this is what Slack was trying to facilitate but it would still be unwanted commercial messaging from my perspective. I don't want to connect with them, I'm not the right person at my company to reach out to, and frankly I doubt my company is interested in fielding invitations from every Tom, Dick, and Harry organization out there.

Don't call us, we'll call you.

I love being thanked for placing zero orders

from here

I'm sure the invoice is a real page-turner too.

I can only assume the 1337-speak slipped into it because some kid is behind this obvious spam/scam; in which case congrats on being slightly smarter than a spam filter, kiddo.

I Rather Have Spam On My Plate Than In My Mail hat

Product Page

I certainly can't argue with that sentiment, can you? If everyone feels the same way about spam, how can it continue to be profitable?

What are you trying to say about me, Google?

from here

No, I'm not reminding myself to get bigger or last longer or transfer funds or anything like that. For all the smarts that goes into GMail, you'd think it could tell that an email I compose to myself while logged into the web interface would be enough to rule out the possibility of spam. Apparently that's not the case.

Don't forget the pop-up pornadoes

from here

It's kind of weird how the contents of spam emails have changed over the years. I'm sure there's still some adult-themed spam, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as popular anymore.