eye for information

Today's helping of fresh spam - I had several of these for different companies in the US and to different made-up mailboxes on my domain. The reply-to address is the plausible (not) 'Customer Support' [no-reply@bankreport.com]

We recorded a payment request from "Borders Group" to enable the charge of $3056.18 on your account.

The payment is pending for the moment.

If you made this transaction or if you just authorize this payment, please ignore or remove this email message. The transaction will be shown on your monthly statement as "Borders Group".

If you didn't make this payment and would like to decline it, please download and install the transaction inspector module (attached to this letter).

I suppose if I were to be stupid enough to open the attached ZIP file, I would deserve all I got. Perhaps they think that I will panic at the thought of a big transaction and ignore the complete lack of verification details or the non-existent addressee.

Graham Cluley of Sophos reports that it is a Trojan Horse.

On the funny side, my official email as Parish Clerk has now been picked up by spammers, and several nice Nigerian ladies have offered to send me lots of money out of Christian kindness. I am sure the ratepayers will be delighted to hear that we can pay them a dividend rather than taking a precept next year. I must remember to put this on the agenda...

Number 4 in an occasional series: 1 was staplers, 2 was caravans, and 3 was chairs.

Some while ago, I got an Epic Fireworks catalogue through the post - why they think a 2-man company would mount a £2000 display is beyond me, but it furnished me with food for thought.

In the olden days, fireworks used to have pretty names like Roman Candle, Bengal Matches, Silver Rain and Chrysanthemum Flower as befits their beauty. But in these boorish and aggressive times, they have Chav names: Fire One, Raging Bull, Hornets 28 Shot, Maverick, DP Thrust, Fragma, Shogun, Atomic Meltdown Rocket, Stinger, Heavy Duty and Six Machine to name but a few from the Revenge of the Guy selection pack.

Obviously Zen has given way to crass commercialism in the newly liberated Chinese economy. Sigh.

I recently installed a trial version of WinZip to see if it was any better than my ancient licensed copy languishing somewhere on floppy disk (!). It wasn't, and I have now decided to uninstall it - very slick - you get taken to a web page where you can get it for free by buying something else from a partner. But I digress. The nag screen is really very clever I thought - who can resist a little doggie?

Dear our friend,

Our site - http://www.4idiotsUSAsindrome.com

If others can do it, why not you?

FatLoss4Idiots program helps you to lose weight and it does that in the most healthy-way, unlike other fad diets in the market.

So, it has a fair chance of working for you as well, but, only if you are 100% dedicated to follow the diet - and if you don't get bored of it.

I have tried many diets, this one offers immediate results, which is motivating and keeps you going.

I hope I can finish the 11 days this time."

So, go visit http://www.4idiotsUSAdiee.com if you have made up your mind to buy it.

Here's to you,
communicationarts.co.uk Lord

Apart from the terrible grammar - which is only to be expected, why insult people you want to buy your scammy products by calling them idiots, and admitting that it's a fad, however unintentionally? I expect whatever it is does 'keep you going' - to the bog. I hope they catch something nasty off the seat...