Whoever named unsolicited, unwanted, junk email “SPAM” was one smart
cookie. I can’t stand Spam – both the “food”
(and I use that term loosely) and the junk online.
Lately, I’ve gotten a lot more of it.
No, not the food. I was only forced
to try that stuff one time when I was a kid and my mom decided to
experiment. Evidently no one in the
family could stomach it and it was never featured as a main dish at our dinner
table again.
What I mean is I’ve been getting a lot more of the online computer-type
Spam. Why? Probably because I did a lot of online
shopping over Christmas and ordered from some new sites that evidently have no
compunction about selling my information to all sorts of Spammy-type
companies. Grrr. If I knew which one it was, I would never
EVER order from them again. But, alas, I
have no clue as to the identity of the culprit, so I just have to delete,
delete, delete.
I’ve also been getting a lot more Spam messages attached to my blog. Yeah,
“Anonymous” is apparently one of my biggest fans. “A,” as I’ve started calling him/her/it, leaves
messages that sound all complimentary about the topic and tell me what a brilliant
writer I am – but then they want me to check out their website. And it’s usually something not rated “PG.” Or even “R.”
Lately, the websites have been things named “Payday loans” or “Buy
Ambien.”
Whether or not you could actually apply for a payday loan or buy Ambien
from their website, I do not know because I wouldn’t click on their link on a
bet.
Fortunately, I changed my Blog so that I have to approve any comments
that are published to my website. I
suppose that would be a major hassle for someone who has a large following and
receives tons of messages from actual readers, but it’s not a problem for me as
I don’t get that many comments.
Nevertheless, I mark each of these messages as Spam and they do not get
published. But I have to tell you, I was
halfway tempted to click on the website called, “Abscess tooth home remedy.” I mean, the word “abscess” was spelled
correctly and everything. So maybe it’s
legit – whaddya think?
Nah, I’m just kiddin’. Mostly
because their actual comment about my blog was this: “Your currеnt repoгt hаs veгіfіеd useful to us. It’s really
informatiѵe and yοu're simply naturally quite experienced of this type. You get
popped our eye to numerous thoughts about this specific topic with intriguing,
notable and solid written content.”
Huh? What exactly does “you get popped
our eye…” mean?
Oh yeah, and the title of the particular
blog to which they were referring is, “Jingle Bell Rockin’ it in Tap Shoes.”
“Naturally experienced”? I took tap dance lessons for about a minute and
a half in the third grade, pal, so how naturally experienced could I possibly
be?!
Ah well, I suppose it could be
worse. I mean, since I can control whether
or not these comments see the light of day, I’m not as concerned about them as
if they were visible or accessible to anyone who reads my blogs. I don’t know why it is, but I feel completely
guilty if I get hacked and Spam gets forwarded in my name. Or, heaven forbid, I
unknowingly start spreading viruses around.
I actually think that happened once on
Facebook – I didn’t know anything about it until someone sent me a note and
said she was unfriending me. Like I did
it on purpose!
Hey, I think I’m a good online friend – whenever
I receive a strangely-worded email along with a suspicious link – I write to the
sender alerting them that they may have been hacked. And, of course, I appreciate it when someone
gives me the same courtesy.
So I guess we have to take the good with
the bad. It’s cool that we can access the world from our computers or tablets
or smart phones these days. But we also
have to realize that there are some nasty folk in that vast place we call the worldwide
web who are trying to take advantage of us.
So fair warning – unless the title of my
blog is about a recent trip to the dentist, never EVER click on a link attached
to my blog called "abscess tooth home remedy."
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