Everyone makes mistakes, some are just more embarrassing than others. Take for example, accidentally sending an email venting about your in-laws to your in-laws, when you meant to send it to your spouse (for the record, I’ve never done this and I love my in-laws). While that scenario may have once led to an awkward family dinner, it might not anymore, thanks to Google’s new magical “undo send” option in Gmail. [More]
Gmail’s Tabbed Layout: Won’t Someone Think Of The Marketers?!
By 8.15.13
Back in May, Gmail introduced a new way to sort our inboxes, automatically assigning messages to different tabs. The default setting sticks marketing emails into a “promotions” folder that you can ignore entirely if you want to. Seems like a great idea…unless you’re the person sending out those e-mails. [More]
Kmart Teases Me With Virtual Rebate That Vanishes Into The Ether
By 12.13.12
Shopping online and looking for the best deal like a good consumer, Doug bought his Nintendo 3DS from Kmart. Part of the greatness of this deal was a $30 rebate that would (theoretically) come in the form of a gift code. Sending rebates to customers in the form of an electronic code seems so efficient, doesn’t it? Yes, we suppose it would be, if Kmart had sent the code, and if anyone at Kmart had any idea what it is that he’s talking about. [More]
5 Mortal Sins Of Email Use
By 3.14.12
Email is magical for its amazing ability to get people to despise you through its misuse. It’s rare that those who are offended by inappropriate emails call the abuser out on their foibles, so offenders often continue unchecked. But this has to stop. People need to slap some virtual hands to correct bad behavior. [More]
Rescue Messages From Facebook's De Facto Spam Filter
By 12.15.11
When Facebook thinks you don’t particularly want to read a message that’s sent your way, it redirects it into a folder dubbed “other.” Some users forget to check the box regularly, and others may not even be aware that they have it. [More]
Boxing Ticket Phishing Scam Making The Rounds
By 10.28.11
Say you check your email and notice a confirmation message for expensive tickets you never bought. Your first instinct may be to click on the link and dispute the charge, and that’s just the reaction the con artists who sent you the message are hoping for. [More]
Watch Out For This Netflix Phishing Scam
By 10.20.11
There’s an email that’s been going around that pretends like it’s from Netflix and they’re having trouble with your credit card. Actually, it’s from scammers and they want to steal your credit card. [More]
FBI Arrests Man Accused Of Hacking Celebrity Emails
By 10.13.11
A certain Scarlett Johansson photo you may have read about but certainly didn’t check out yourself is part of a federal investigation that resulted in the arrest of a 35-year-old Florida man who is accused of hacking into online accounts of various celebrities. [More]
Yahoo Apologizes For Accidentally Blocking Protest Emails
By 9.21.11
Yahoo email users complained that the system blocked messages about a Wall Street protest, accusing the company of censorship. Via Twitter, Yahoo says that there was no intentional censorship and the blockage was due to an unintentional spam filter setting that has now been fixed. [More]
Spam Drops Sharply From 2010 Levels
By 7.5.11
If your inbox seems a bit less crowded than usual, it’s probably because there’s reportedly been a massive decline in junk email from this point a year ago. According to Symantec, there are now 39.2 billion spam messages sent each day, down from 230 billion daily messages a year ago. [More]
Stuff Bought Through Spam Actually Gets Delivered
By 6.8.11
While most of us don’t trust spam, if you order something advertised through it, be it pills, knockoff Rolex watches, or software, it will probably end up at your door. That’s one of the many surprising conclusions uncovered by researchers tracking exactly how spam works (PDF) from alpha to omega in the transaction process. [More]
It Takes 12.5 Million Spams To Sell $100 Of Viagra
By 5.26.11
Considering how insistent and persistent the emails are, you would think there was big bucks in pushing pills that increase the flow of blood to one’s penis for an extended period of time. That may be true, but only because the costs of spam advertising are so low, as revealed by this nugget in a New York Times article that reveals it takes 12.5 million spam emails just to sell $100 worth of Viagra. [More]
Match.com Thinks You Have 7-Year Itch
By 5.20.11
After years of happy marriage, Match.com has decided that one of our readers has probably had enough and emailed them a selection of potential mates. Our reader met the man they would eventually marry on Match.com in 2001 and both of them believed they deleted their profiles together in 2002. In 2005, they were married. But using sophisticated algorithms, Match.com has tried to hook our reader up again. Maybe there’s a built-in 7-Year Itch protocol that automatically detects when you’ve hit the 7-year mark and would potentially be interested in the dating site’s services again? [More]
Botnets Rebuild Forces After Rustock Raid
By 5.2.11
After the Feds and Microsoft in March chopped off the head of the hydra that was the 1-million strong “Rustock” botnet responsible for sending billions of spam, several heads have sprung in its place. PC World notes a Symantec report of a 24% jump in emails containing malicious links and attachments, possibly representing an attempt to regrow the forces of zombie controlled computers and fill the void left by Rustock. [More]
Google Mistakenly Resets An Estimated 150,000 Gmail Accounts
By 2.28.11
Gmail users can usually take comfort in knowing important documents they send to others are safe and accessible in their mail archives, but as many as 150,000 Gmail users lost all their stuff because their accounts got unwanted fresh starts Sunday morning. [More]
Google Doubles Down On Gmail Security
By 2.11.11
Feeling a bit insecure, Google set up a moat, an attack dog and alarm system for Gmail. Well, sorta. It added an optional (for now) two-step verification process to sign in, decreasing the likelihood that a hacker will be able to take your account out on a joyride. [More]
Hotmail Adds Disposable Accounts
By 2.4.11
It’s easy to spoil a good email address by allowing too many irritating sources to grab ahold of it. Hotmail is addressing the problem by allowing users to set up dummy accounts that forward mail to a master inbox. You can set up an alternate address that you use to register for silly website giveaways or people you don’t trust, then delete that account if it becomes a spam faucet. [More]
Hotmail Sucks: The Rap Video!
By 2.3.11
Dan Bull has been using Hotmail for 10 years but he’s just about reached his breaking point. So the U.K. bedroom rhymesmith made a rap video open letter to Microsoft about how much their product sucks a giant brick. In the vocal style of The Streets, Dan takes aim at the emails that don’t arrive, their weak spam filters, and MSN’s wack way of adding extra steps when you try to make links. [More]
