While we know that common items like detergent, pregnancy tests, weight loss pills, and diapers, and even baby formula can be popular with shoplifters, stores in Hawaii are facing a new trend in thievery: Cans of Spam are flying off shelves as folks with sticky fingers try to make a quick buck. [More]
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Facebook Cracking Down On Video Clickbait In The Newsfeed
By 8.18.17
If you’ve ever clicked on what looks like an interesting video promising “17 Ways You’re Eating Cheese Wrong,” only to find yourself on a spammy website that has nothing to do with cheese, you know how frustrating such clickbait can be. Facebook is now introducing new updates aimed at keeping those deceptive posts out of your news feed. [More]
Facebook Cracking Down On Scammy Ads Disguised As Legit Businesses
By 8.9.17
Fraudsters have no shortage of tricks and sleights of hand to make themselves look like a legit business venture. In an effort to root out these scammers, Facebook is rolling out new tools designed to detect when companies disguise their ads as innocent or benign for moderators, but real users see spam. [More]
Google Adds Phishing Protection To Android Gmail App
By 5.4.17
Yesterday, millions of Gmail users became the targets of a phishing scam in which someone they knew sent a Google Doc for them to edit. Once they clicked on the email, however, they opened their computers and email accounts to ne’er-do-wells. Now, Google is launching an update that may make it easier for users to decipher when an email is suspicious — as long as they’re using the Android app. [More]
FTC: Businesses Could Be Doing More To Protect Customers From Phishing, But Aren’t
By 3.3.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
You probably know the danger signs of a phishing message when it arrives in your inbox: It impersonates a company that you don’t do business with, mentions a transaction that didn’t happen, or has blatant spelling or grammatical errors. The Federal Trade Commission, though, notes that businesses that contact consumers online could implement simple steps to keep phishing messages from us in the first place. They just don’t. [More]
Lawsuit Claims Universal Pictures Spammed Phones With Unsolicited ‘Warcraft’ Texts
By 7.1.16
Spam. It’s not just something that shows up in your email inbox from time to time, promising anatomical enhancements and luxury R0l3xes; sometimes it makes its way to your cell phone unbidden, leaving you with no recourse but to delete it… or sue whoever sent it to you, which is what one guy is doing after saying he got unsolicited texts messages from Universal Pictures pushing its movie based on a video game Warcraft. [More]
“Spam King” Gets 30 Months In Jail For Sending More Than 27M Unsolicited Facebook Messages
By 6.16.16
Though it may seem like spam messages are the stuff of giant networks of evilly cackling robots who are hell bent on beleaguering innocent people with offers for cheap erectile dysfunction medications, sometimes it’s just a human hacker. One of those humans now has more than two years of jail time to look forward to after sending more than 27 million spam messages through Facebook. [More]
Spammers Used Hacked Email Accounts To Push Bogus Weight-Loss Products
By 6.6.16
Word-of-mouth is a great way to promote a weight-loss product, as you’re more likely to trust a passed-along recommendation from a friend than some ad you see on the internet. That’s why the operators of an alleged spam scam hijacked hacked email accounts to spread the word about a slew of unproven weight-loss products.
[More]
“Artisanal Spam” Is Today’s Sneaky New Trend In Email Scams
By 1.19.16
Because we live in a world where everything trendy is farm-to-table, or handcrafted, or whittled by free-trade fairies from reclaimed wood, we’re not entirely surprised that the new thing in email scams is something called “artisanal spam.” [More]
Yahoo Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit Claiming Messenger Service Sent Spam Texts To Some Users
By 1.6.16
When you sign up for one kind of message service, you might not expect, or want, messages about that service elsewhere. As such, Yahoo is facing a class-action lawsuit that claims the company’s Messenger service spammed some Sprint cellphone customers with unwanted texts, which could put it on the line for costly fines if it loses in court. [More]
Feds: Hackers Spammed More Than 60 Million People Using Stolen Data
By 12.15.15
Though it seems hard to believe anyone could make money by sending out spammy emails promising enhanced improvement of a certain kind, or fake watches that look like the real thing, there are still those out there willing to give it a go. And according to the U.S. government, three hackers used stolen data to make more than $2 million in illegal profits from a spamming scheme aimed at about 60 million people. [More]
Lawsuit Claims Operators Of Two Adult Subscription Sites Sent Unsolicited Texts Linking To Porn
By 9.2.15
No one likes getting spammed, but when you’ve got unsolicited text messages blowing up your phone with links to porn, it’s a lot harder to avoid than the pitches for fake Rolexes and male enhancement drugs that end up banished to your email’s spam folder. A lawsuit in Illinois that’s seeking class-action status claims the operators of two subscription adult entertainment sites spammed peoples’ phones with links to their sites, though the recipients never signed up for such texts in the first place. [More]
“Spam King” Pleads Guilty To Sending More Than 27M Unsolicited Facebook Messages
By 8.25.15
When your email or other messaging account is flooded with messages promising cheap$ R0lexes! and invitations to collect a million dollars from the estate of a long-lost foreign dignitary relative, it’s not easy to place the blame: is it a robot programmed for maximum annoyance? A wee, cackling, evil spam elf? Sometimes, it’s just a human: a man known as the “Spam King” has admitted in court that he’s behind more than 27 million unsolicited messages sent through Facebook’s servers. [More]
Hormel Gobbling Up Applegate Farms For $775M
By 5.27.15
In a sign of the times, Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of Spam, is trying for that natural foods feeling and has decided that buying Applegate Farms for $775 million is the way to achieve it. [More]
FTC: Totally Fine By Us If Phone Companies Block Robocalling Numbers
By 1.27.15
Robocalls suck. Everyone hates them. And yet despite decades of trying to deal with autodialers and phone spam, they’re still a big problem. The FCC wants to know if phone companies can block them getting to you. Phone companies say too bad, so sad, the rules mean we can’t block them… but the FTC now disagrees. [More]
Google Doesn’t Recognize Itself Anymore, Marks Own Email As Spam
By 12.19.14
Though it’s usually the place where fake Rolex offers, male enhancement drugs and princes from Ghana go to die, it’s always a good idea to check your spam folder. Because even Google will keep its own emails out of your Gmail inbox. [More]
Casino E-Mails Problem Gamblers Who Specifically Asked To Be Left Alone
By 11.11.14
If you have a gambling problem, you can do something drastic but ultimately helpful: you can put yourself on a “self-exclusion” list that means you no longer receive e-mails or promotions from gambling companies. You can self-exclude from both real-life casinos and their online counterparts, so you won’t be allowed to play. The problem comes when something goes wrong, and those customers receive an e-mail blast. [More]
Instagram Lets Users Hide Offensive Comments Automatically
Last fall, Instagram began allowing users to filter out unwanted comments on their photos by keyword, now the photo sharing site is launching two additional tool, including one that blocks certain offensive comments automatically. [More]