Shoes of the phishermen
Phishin’ expedition
Interesting phenomenon. I set up a website for my new editorial services conglomerate (Indie-Scribable) back in February, and no sooner does the thing go live than I begin receiving a bejillion phishing emails every day. Actually, they’re probably malware delivery devices, but I’d never click on the links (I hope you wouldn’t either!). They almost all say they have some money for me, and all I have to do is claim it.
Hey, free money!
I registered the domain name with Go Daddy and developed the website through Weebly. Thanks to Weebly’s tracking data, I can see that a lot of the referring sites are from places like Russia, where I can just imagine hackers dressed like Two Wild And Crazy Guys bent over their laptops and waiting for the “stoopit capitaleest peegs” to fall for their scams.
Just wondering, if you’ve registered a domain name or if you host your blog through a provider outside of WordPress, have you experienced an increase in phishing and malware attacks?
The irony — if publishing a website is like a neon sign saying, “Come n’ get me!”
13 comments on “Shoes of the phishermen”
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You might have titled this post “From Russia With Love” but the title you did use provided me with a good belly laugh. Thank you!
Pleasure!
Oh my! I get those all the time. Hit delete! What bothers me is the phone calls saying I’ve won a free cruise. All I have to do to claim it is pay X amount of $$$! It’s not free if you have to pay folks…~Elle
Ha. Reminds me of the redundant “free gift.” 😝
I’ve never really been subjected to overwhelming spam in all the years of running websites, but I notice the usual triggers that draw the spammers in. On WordPress if I use keywords like marketing I know I’ll get a flurry of followers who run get-rich-quick blogs, and I’ll see my Twitter following increase in the same way. I’ve started to to do it deliberately, just to see what happens. I don’t know whether to feel sorry for them or not.
Life: “Always be closing.”
Glengarry Glen Ross has it just about right, eh?
I love written dialect and yours made me laugh out loud. What an image in my head. I just registered a domain name with Blue Host. I haven’t used it yet, but I’m feeling like they must share your email and other personal data as I have received bazillion emails from web companies offering to set up my new site. A few days ago they phone calls started. What’s even more annoying about the phone calls is that the people are trying to talk over a hubbub of activity and I can barley hear them speak. I couldn’t imagine trying to converse with them to convey my needs, especially when they sound like the Indian versions of your Russian guys.
Tankew berry mooch!
I use just the basic WordPress blog setup, but I have registered my domain name (audreydriscoll.com) with GoDaddy. Can’t say I’ve noticed a vast volume of phishing or malware — just the usual spam that gets picked up by the WordPress spam catcher. But then, mine isn’t what you’d call a “power” blog. 🙂
Interesting. Maybe Weebly is the culprit.
There should be some way your web host can block those emails. I’ve heard people complain about CAPTCHA (“I’m not a bot! Why should I type in a code”), but really, the point is to separate the bots from the bods. I get enough emails that I don’t have time to read as it is without the good stuff being drowned out by bots. And god help the bot that calls me on the phone ….
Heh heh. We just don’t answer our phone anymore!
Neither do we. Or sometimes if I’m near the phone, I just pick it up, pause, and then put it back down 😉