Yesterday the FTC announced that they busted a worldwide spam operation that was responsible for “billions of e-mails in recent years,” mostly selling prescription drugs, diet pills, and “male enhancement” products. Who actually clicks on those emails, you wonder? FTC agents, that’s who!
As part of their inquiry, FTC staff made undercover purchases from the sites. No one asked the clandestine buyers to provide verification of a prescription and the shipped drugs did not include doctors’ instructions or dosage information, officials said.
According to MSNBC, the sites used names like “Canadian Healthcare,” were run by U.S. and New Zealand citizens, were hosted in China, sourced their drugs from India, and ran credit card purchases through Cyprus and the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The world of spam is flat, indeed (although there’s probably an email in my inbox that promises to prevent that).
“FTC busts ‘world’s largest spam operation’” [MSNBC]
(Photo: Getty Images)
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Gmail has really solved my spam problems.
@Ein2015: Not me, I started posting in the message boards on finance.google.com and it reveals my email and ever since then I have been getting at least 10 spam mail today, it goes in my spam folder though but still annoying.
@midwestkel: Spam that is in your spam folder doesnt count here I dont think? I agree with Ein, its solved my spam issues. I get over 150 spam messages a day, all properly stored in my spam folder that I glance over once a week.
@chadbailey:
Why should you have to even glance at the folder?
A single spam email is one too many.
@Corporate-Shill: Occasionally emails that AREN’T spam get into the spam folder. I’ve found missed business opportunities in there a week after the fact (I run my own business and a missed email can mean lost income).
@midwestkel: Sorry, but how is it annoying in your spam folder? Don’t even look at it, it gets deleted after 30 days.
@Ein2015:
@Ein2015: No, GMail has /hidden/ your spam problems. Putting blinders over your eyes and ignoring whether you may have missed important e-mails is worse than where you were before- the same situation but admitting that you may have missed something due to all the spam.
@Ein2015: My Yahoo! email receives a message in the spam folder once in a blue moon. Even then, 9/10 times it’s a legitimate message forwarded there by mistake. I’ve even mistakenly used this address on some really dumb sites.
My school-provided email, however, is another story. Constant barrages of job-search and medical spam. I receive spam in my inbox almost daily. I never had spam before… until I used that address for job search sites such as Monster and Career Builder (aka Spamster and Career Spammer). Take note, if you ever use these sites, for God’s sake USE A THROW-AWAY EMAIL ADDRESS! You will not regret it.
Now how will I enhance my sex life?? Or find a home mortgage!? I have to e-mail my new Nigerian pen-pal about this!
@Crabby Cakes: Hi!
@Crabby Cakes: Seriously! The FTC doesn’t care about the little man. I need my blue bombers, dammit!
@NigerianScammer: Did you get the check I sent you?
There was a noticeable drop in the amount of that kind of crap in my office e-mail spam filter today.
@JulesWinnfield:
I actually just commented to my friend about the same thing – I have had no Viagra/Cialis junk emails in a couple of days. Coincidence?
@JulesWinnfield: Mine too! I work in advertising and get upwards of 2000 spam mails a day. I have gotten significantly fewer in the past few days. This explains it.
@JulesWinnfield: I had a big drop, too.
On Oct 1st, I had over 140,000 spams to my mailserver blocked by Spamhaus, but there were only 81,000 yesterday. Pretty significant!
@JulesWinnfield: I’ve actually had an increase…hmm
I’d be surprised if they were even shipping the actual brand drugs. Since they’re breaking every other law and business ethic, why not just ship watered-down versions or even do-nothing pills. Or maybe even don’t ship anything at all, just charge the credit cards.
@nytmare: I believe they ship generic versions of the drugs that were made in India.
@parad0x360: see below, plus we “know” these type of countries practice great quality control and government oversight…
I’d be surprised if they were even shipping the actual brand drugs.
v18g[a, of course, is the patented name for a one-penny aspirin pill.
@timmus: Do nothing pills? How about ‘do really bad things’ pills. [news.scotsman.com]
I found this article searching for an article on viagra pills that were actually ground up drywall covered with blue road paint.
“billions of e-mails” over the years?
So in other words, about 1% of the spam sent yesterday alone? I am VERY confident that a billion emails is about the number of emails coming out of China (or from the Comcast residential IP blocks from infected Windows Zombies) every HOUR.
I think some people have NO IDEA of the extent of the spam problem.
I don’t know whether to be happy about this. Sure, they’ll fine a few spammers a couple bucks, but this is a HUGE lost opportunity to pound rusty nails into the eyes of the world’s most detestable people.
(And you might dispute that murderers etc. are worse, but at least they only fuck things up for their victims. Spam fucks up the Internet for EVERYBODY. If you doubt me, ask anyone else who works in IT.)
@West Coast Secessionist: No it wont fix anything because now lesser spammers will just increase volume to fill the void.
@West Coast Secessionist:
Okay, say every internet user spends five minutes per week deleting spam messages. If you use an email service with decent spam filtering, this seems realistic to me.
In a year that’s about 5 minutes times 1.5 billion users times 52. That’s 390 billion man-minutes wasted per year. That’s about 9893 lifetimes wasted per year.
AND THAT IS JUST END-USERS
(Assuming everyone has an email address and all those email addresses are old enough to have started attracting spam)
SPAM KILLS 9893 PEOPLE EVERY YEAR!
@TechnoDestructo: can i get that on a t-shirt?
I just looked at my spam from today… most of it is spam for medication… so please FTC, keep buying and arresting!
So the FTC is willing to buy some of these fake diplomas I have sitting in a box?
…So this means that my iPod isn’t on its way in the mail?
Well, that’s a Fark ready headline if I ever saw one.
At least we can still GET drugs from overseas at a fraction of the cost of US. Instead of buying Prilosec at $28.00 for a 42 day supply, I can get 180 days outsourced generic from India for $60.00. Kind of a no-brainer.
You just gotta know where to go, and not buy your pills from a stranger.
@Marshfield: /sarcasm/ As someone who’s been on Prilosec since before the patent expired, 66 cents a pill still seems like a staggering bargain. As I recall, a month’s supply used to be well over $100. /sarcasm/ .
But the stuff freakin’ works.
@Cliff_Donner: And PS, don’t get me started about my giant penis.
I’m telling it works. Mine is so much bigger and better now. Really.
My personal response to spammers is on an little, micro-small link on my web page, if you try to spot it by eye, you’d go blind before seeing it.
The thing sends their harvester bot to a randomly generated list of mails with known spammers domains.
The rest is on the hands of my mail filter.
the link for the generator in case anybody want to try is english.spamsaver.com/
Well there go my Nigerian investments.
Spammers should burn in hell with the rapists and murderers.
@gatewaytoheaven: Don’t forget the fraudsters, seria-killers, Hollywood executives, used-car salesmen, and so on.
@michaelleung: and bicycle and camera thieves, these thugs are the lowest, they rob you of sentiment.
I noticed a pretty good drop in spam for a few days, immediately after those earthquakes in China last summer.
Maybe I’m seeing something other people are not, but does anybody else notice the subtle genius of the picture?
Prince Albert.
Now if only they’d go after that idiot that keeps calling my and my wifes cell phones with that stupid “Your auto warranty is about to expire!” message.
I also had a substantial increase of spam in recent days. Maybe double the norm.
In the last 6 months I’ve been getting the Nigerian spam, and spam written in Russian. Amazingly, many of these escape Yahoo’s spam filter and go into my inbox. How hard can it be to filter the word Nigeria, or Russian text?
Oh gawd. I honestly scanned that headline and read it as “FTC Busts Giant Sperm Operation….” LOL
Time for some coffee.
That’s a sardine tin, not a SPAM can top. Just thought I’d point that out.
@mariospants:
No, that’s a Spam top. They changed their lids a while back (couple of years, maybe?).. The old “Spam Keys” are long gone, having been replaced with pull-top lids.
I love fried spam (floured/breaded & deep fried)
Their punishment – letting Americans line up for miles to kick them in the junk one at a time.