Reply #13: Quakerfriend, you seem to be a good observer. A question about spam... [View All]

Have you (or any other DUers) noticed spam coming in with subject lines hitting on key words which immediately get the attention of those of us interested in real news and liberal concerns?

There was a time when Havocdad and I noticed the return names on most of the spam were clones of email addresses in of people in our area, or had names of many in our area with our server as part of the address. We are in a very sparsely populated large remote area, and many neighbors have unusual names. We wondered if our server (only one available in this area) was selling names to spammers.

Lately, like since the Nov election, I have noticed LOTS of spam with subject lines referring to news about electronic voting, civil rights, GITMO, environmental issues up the wahzoo, and several with names like Andy Stephenson!

So, is part of this push to spy on our internet habits just a means of commercially exploiting our concerns? Sure seems the spammers have customized the subject lines and/or cloned return email addressed to get our notice.

I am hoping it really IS just more of the consumer survey crap used to see what shiny things get our attention. Am convinced that the spying on our internet activities is partly just more data mining in hopes of finding ways to sell shit.

Just wondered if you or anybody else has noticed a change in the spam of late.