My attempt to get on top of my email inbox continues this week. A week where I was for once inundated with the spam factor and contemplating retiring on my Billion dollar inheritances with one of my not so secret overseas admirers. 
The spam factor went into overdrive on Thursday when three men from three different countries declared their unspamming love for me. Each email was almost word for word, just a change of name, location and photo. The photos themselves were questionable, clearly photo shopped and stolen from the web. With promises of holidays filled with love, I’m assuming financed by myself while they bled my bank account dry, how could I resist?! Even if I wasn’t happily married, there is no way I would have fallen for this crap but clearly someone does or why would they do it?
The next quesionable email, appeared legitimate at first but the fact the email was a clear cut and paste number and there was no mention of my actual name or website, I’ve placed it in the spam folder.
Hello again, I was following up on my prior email.
Are you looking to cash out of your website property ?? As website brokers with no up-front costs, we stay focused on getting websites sold, not just listed……… outreach efforts such as this help us pinpoint websites that fit the buyers interest and criteria, while also connecting with sellers who are ready to sell. Our approach is to limit the number active websites for sale at any given time, so that the group is manageable, diverse and complimentary / non-threatening to each other. This helps the sellers that we represent.We have the systems, industry relationships and decades of experience to help both sellers and buyers. I look forward to assisting you with any matters that involve selling, evaluating or buying website properties. That is what we do……. with much success.
—
Regards,
What do you think…. SPAM or HAM?
Then this arrived, which at least mentions how they found me and that they liked a pair of shoes I was selling from my wardrobe BUT it’s still very much spam in my books.
Hi,
My name is xxxx and I’m the Merchant Specialist at xxxxx. I ended up finding your shop Eclectic Avenue on Storenvy the other day and loved your Top End Black Heels 38 1/2. I wanted to encourage you to check out our marketplace as I believe your products would sell very well there.
As a seller on xxxx your products will be advertised on Google Shopping, adjusted to attract the right audience, and optimized to yield the best results. We do this all for as low as $7/mo and you can try us out free for 15 days.
You’ll also have flexibility to accept PayPal, credit card, and bitcoin (which has brought 1000’s of new shoppers to the site).
We’ve had some great press recently and were even featured on Time, KPBS, Forbes, and Mashable.
You can use the link below to start your free trial and see if it’s a good fit for you. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Next email on the list did make me do a double take at first…..Nice TRY! Perhaps if you could address me by name and string a simple sentence together, I might have fallen for this one but there are also the facts that I have unlimited storage and I don’t even have an account with you.
*Technical Issue with your web-mail.This is to inform you that your mailbox has exceeds it’s storage limit and it is generating a continuous error script (code:505) which will slow the email server. You will be unable to receive and send emails in few hours if you do not reset your account space.
To reset your Account Space on our system database, prior to maintain your INBOX from 20G to 20.9G. CLICK HERE to Reset and validate your account.
Sincerely,-IT Department
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You could possibly argue that this next one is more constructive criticism than SPAM factor but they go and spoil all their vanilla words by leaving their webpage for a free psychic reading.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “Let’s talk about my most embarrassing moment”:
I think that everything published was actually very reasonable.
But, what about this? what if you wrote a catchier post
title? I am not saying your information isn’t solid., but what if you added
something that makes people want more? I mean “Let’s talk about my most embarrassing moment” is kinda vanilla.
You might look at Yahoo’s home page and note how they write news titles to get viewers interested.
You might add a related video or a pic or two to get people excited about what you’ve got to say.
Just my opinion, it might make your blog a little bit more interesting.Here is my weblog; free psychic reading
I’m feeling pretty psychic myself on this and I’m calling it spam. What do you think?
There were a two more emails offering me massive inheritances. I just need to email bank account details and provide an initial payment before funds can be released. Seriously, does anyone fall for these emails?
Position Vacant | Join the Mystery Case team
Ah the joys of spam! I have a plugin on my blog that means the first time somebody comments, I have to approve it before it shows up. Lately I’ve been noticing a few sneak through without my approval. The other thing that alerts me to the fact it’s spam is when a BLOKE comments on my great fashion choices?! I mean, what the!
I’m lucky not much filters through on the blog. I must say I’m rather disappointed that the spam factor on Facebook seems rather non existent at the moment. I always use to turn to my ‘other’ folder when I needed a good laugh.
Sadly so many do? I mean I get ones telling me my paypal, yahoo and ebay accounts needed me to change things when it’s all crap and I know my parents would fall for them! Love me some funny spam! x
Not that my mother in law would admit it, but I’m convinced something like this happened when her credit card was emptied. I remember on her last visit we had to stop her from clicking on a pop up on the computer telling her she had won a prize because she was the millionth visitor or something along those lines.
I was getting ‘hot sluts near you’ but now I’m getting old widows dying of cancer wanting to give me money…not sure why it morphed…
LOL Lydia that is hilarious. Haven’t had any hotties near me. Not sure if I’m missing out or not?!
Haha, the psychic one is my favorite. 😀 Random people want to send me money all the time.
I think it was my favourite too. I might have to call my next blog post Vanilla!
I love checking my spam folder every once in a while – very entertaining!
Have to agree with you there. I’ve been a bit light on the spam on Facebook this month and they are usually the more entertaining ones.
Some of the spam messages that get through for me to moderate are pretty clever and it’s hard to tell if they are legit or not..although I have found it’s usually their email that gives them away. I can’t believe that people fall for them too, and I always shake my head when I hear of another ‘Current Affair’ story of some ‘poor’ person fell for an internet scam.
I know. I just don’t get it.
That psychic reader is hilarious! Where do people get the time to do this stuff and seriously…what’s in it for them? I ignore spam completely. Some of them maybe legit but their offer is never lucrative enough for me, anyway.
I wonder the same thing. I’m assuming outsourced for peanuts.
I need to know who comes up with this stuff. They are so lame! You would think by now they would be getting smarter about how they go about it.
I’ve been thinking the same thing.
Oh my what some interesting spam you have there, mine is never as interesting as that!
That’s possibly a good thing!
I don’t ever bother to check the spam folder. Gmail has such a great spam filter I never have to even look at it. It is sad, but people do fall for alot of these. #teamIBOT
Very occasionally a client email will fall into SPAM, so I make a habit of checking the spam folder and other folder on FB once a week.
Oh what, you got a Billion dollar inheritance? Me, too! I used to have a lot of fun going through my spam folder, but haven’t had time for it lately.
LOL! I don’t have time either but a couple of client emails have slipped through to spam and I’ve lost work and been in hot water as a result so I’m making more of an effort to check occasionally.
I love checking my spam folder, they are often hilarious! I think anyone could fall for a scam, not the really obvious ones, but some of them are getting pretty clever.
There must be some really good ones. Here in Perth two people had their houses sold while they were working overseas.
Ah the spam folders! Honestly, why? Apart from our own amusement on the other end?
I know, I really do know. I just emailed you by the way.
Lol! I think I might start reading my spam more often for a bit of a giggle 😉
Please go check now and report back!
I rang the spam watch hotline the other day after getting a phone call telling me the federal government was giving me money. All I had to do was call a number. Yep totally believable as you don’t get jack from the gov without filling out 20000 forms and jumping through hoops. Then on Monday I actually got a spam snail mail. Hilarious. Thanks for linking up.
Spam snail mail? Now that is commitment!!!
I know, I’m rather disappointed that I haven’t received any spam snail mail.
I get offered money from rich benefactors all the time!!
And the spam ones on the blog are pretty funny too. Apparently everyone loves my theme and wants their website to look just like mine.
Well why wouldn’t you? 😉
Too funny! After this post I had a rather interesting 5 mile long spam comment. I was half it expecting it would self destruct or I would need to employ someone to decode it.
You know (a big touchwood here), but I’ve only ever received spam 3/4 times!!! I’m sure it will change, but I hope it never does, rich benefactor or not!!
I had a spam SMS the other day. It was really concerning and I’m sure a lot of people would have thought it was the real deal.