Herewith, another of my half-ridicule, half-public-service posts about Lousy Spam Offers.
And yes, it's yet another link-trading deal, with the usual complete lack of any trace of relevance between the sites the spammer would like linked. But this one has some special extra garbage all its own!
From: john@antique-engagement-rings.info
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 09:06:38 -0500
To: dan@dansdata.com
Subject: dansdata.com....Link Exchange Request + Free Software Worth $200Hi,
We at Antique Engagement Rings (http://www.antique-engagement-rings.info) would like to exchange links with
http://www.dansdata.com.We have already placed a link to your site and your link can be found here:
null [not linked to anything]
As you know link exchanging is an excellent way to increase your overall profile and strength within the Internet community.As an added incentive I have arranged with one of our sister sites (who specialize in Internet Marketing) to GIVE you software worth over $200, just for swapping links!
Please go to this page here to add your link:
[link starting with http://antique-engagement-rings.info:8080 ; the server doesn't answer requests on that port]If you do not want to receive any further emails from us please click on the link below:
Click Here [another useless antique-engagement-rings.info:8080... link]Best Regards,
John
antique-engagement-rings.info.PS Details of the f-ree software, worth $200, can be found here:
http://www.internet-marketing-sense.com/1-2-3-in-just-6-weeks/
This also includes a f-ree course on how to get your sites to positions 1,2 and 3 in just 6 weeks.
I had to tidy this up a bit, since "John" is a big fan of using the <br> element for formatting.
But that "f-ree software" must be a big winner, too.
As I write this, a Google search for "antique engagement rings" turns up antique-engagement-rings.info not as result 1, 2 or 3, as you'd expect if they were using their own "f-ree software" and it worked, but as result... nineteen (for separate words or the phrase "antique engagement rings"), despite the fact that this exact search is a perfect match for their domain name.
This, and antique-engagement-rings.info's PageRank of zero, could be in some way connected to the fact that their site is self-evidently useless.
7 November 2007 at 5:50 am
I'm curious as to why the "f-ree software" page shows a Live.com search result for vintage engagement rings without actually mentioning that these sites used the product to get to places one, two and three. Then again, maybe they didn't. It took me a few seconds to figure out what they were actually trying to convey.
7 November 2007 at 6:54 am
I guess we'll never know, seeing as the vintage-engagement-rings.com site shown in those positions no longer exists :-).
7 November 2007 at 6:59 am
Before I actually looked at the site I thought for a moment they were advertising training on Lotus 1-2-3!
7 November 2007 at 9:29 am
I know this is off topic, but I wanted feedback from the group of people that read this blog. I am a bit tired of good friends (and mainly their wives/significant others) who send me spam emails with huge lists of email addresses. My own included, of course. So I sent this individually to each person that usually does this thing:
Greetings my friend,
If you are receiving this email then you are a good friend of mine. And you care enough about me to send me messages that are important to you. The problem is, how shall I put this, you also have a lot of other good friends as well.
You see, you send me emails that have a huge list of your other good friends. Now since you know me so well, you know that I can be a bit strange at times. This is going to be one of my strange moments.
I respectfully request that you remove me from that list of other friends that you use to send me wonderful information and uplifting messages.
If you wish to send me informative and uplifting emails, I respectfully request that you send me those items as an individual. I just don't like the idea that my email address is going out to people that I don't know. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't trust you or your friends. It's just me, I'm a paranoid fellow and while I know that I have to work on that, I'd like you to humor me. okay?
Your friend,
Rich
Too harsh? Not harsh enough?
8 November 2007 at 6:21 am
Too harsh? Not by a long shot. My preferred method is to respond to emails of that kind with a big "UNSUBSCRIBE". That gets the point across eventually.
8 November 2007 at 11:11 am
The joke's on you!
As I speak, the pagerank of the page you're discussing has already gone up to 13. Methinks John is feeling rather smart about himself for having sent such a stupid looking spam to someone prone to talk about them at length and attract a large audience such as you ;) ;)
9 November 2007 at 6:37 am
Don't page ranks only go up to 10?
12 November 2007 at 4:13 pm
sorry, I mean they're up to result no. 13, from 19.