8 posts and columns on spammers

Yahoo Awarded $610 Million in Case Against Email Spammers

in News on December 7, 2011 at 4:55 pm PT

Yahoo Inc. said it has been awarded $610 million in a judgment against spammers responsible for a fake Yahoo lottery email scheme.

Demand Media Says It's Getting Along Just Fine With Google, Thank You Very Much

in Media on January 27, 2011 at 3:00 am PT

A quick Q&A with Demand’s Richard Rosenblatt, who says Google’s blog post about going after “content farms” has nothing to do with his company. Also! He really doesn’t like it when people call his company a “content farm.”

Why Facebook Carded Some Users

in News on November 18, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

On Tuesday, Facebook discovered a bug: An automated system designed to detect spammers and people with fake accounts spun out of control, and started challenging a wider set of regular users. It disabled some people’s accounts, and asked them send in a copy of their real-world ID. Facebook said the issue only affected a “fraction of a percentage” of the social network’s users, and they fixed it within hours. The company also deleted all the ID information that some people sent in.

Spammers Turn Positive on the Economy

in News on April 22, 2010 at 1:05 pm PT

Add another to voice to the chorus declaring that the recession that began in December 2007 is over: your spam folder. Symantec Corp., the security software company behind such programs as Norton, every month cleans out its industrial-sized spam filters and issues a monthly State of Spam & Phishing report based on the result. In its April 2010 report, the company found the tea leaves suggest economic prospects are picking up, at least according to spam email using economic terms.

New Software Aims to Keep Facebook Safer

in News on January 21, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

As social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter have expanded to include more of the online population, spammers and hackers have come along for the ride. Even the FCC chairman has seen his Facebook page taken over by a malicious program that sent spam to his friends.

Battling Spam in Iran Election Tweets

in News on June 22, 2009 at 11:23 am PT

With the Iranian government blocking and limiting the use of social networking sites, cellphone signals and Internet connections, Twitter has proved to be a crucial tool for embattled Iranian protesters to alert the rest of the world about the nation’s post-election conflicts.