Random observations

[fanf]

Happy new year! Cambridge has 10,000 extra enthusiastic, intelligent, (young, attractive) people again, and internal email volumes are up 50%. Summer's having its last blast, as it usually does in October, making the place look its best for the new intake.

I was interested to hear a news item this morning about SOCA busting a load of 419ers. The odd thing that struck me is that they are calling the crime "mass marketing fraud" instead of "spam". Also, I think that the SOCA web site looks like a Dr Who secret agency web site - for example, compare Geocomtex with SOCA.

One sad/amusing aspect of 419 spam is that it's mostly sent manually, unlike the botnet-driven techno-spam mostly sent by Americans with the help of the Russian mafia. Bruce Schneier and Time Magazine write about the frightening sophistication of the Storm Worm.

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I nearly am myself. I mean, I wish spammers got larted properly (though I don't know whether or not we'll ever manage it), but the only reason the fraud aspect doesn't worry me is I always assume no-one is uninformed enough to fall for it (Most spam is a bit fraudulent, misleading at least, I think?).

But people *do*, so the senders deserve to be done properly -- I assume fraud for $large amounts of money is a relatively more serious charge?