I just received an email from some obvious spammer, advertising a cut-price one-off deal for software to enable me to receive satellite TV.
Curious, I followed the http://tinyurl.com/27aj9w link.
This is what it says:
“[i]URL Terminated
The TinyURL (27aj9w) you visited was used by its creator in violation of our terms of use. TinyURL has a strict no abuse policy and we apologize for the intrusion this user has caused you. Such violations of our terms of use include:
* Spam – Unsolicited Bulk E-mail
* Fraud or Money Making scams
* Malware
* or any other use that is illegal.
If you received spam, please note that TinyURL did not send this spam and we do not operate any email lists. We can not remove you from spammer’s database as we have no association with spammers, but instead we recommend you use spam filtering sotware.
About TinyURL
TinyURL.com is a free URL redirection service that allows you to make a long URL into a more managable tiny URL. To learn more about TinyURL, please visit our homepage: http://tinyurl.com
Filter Spam from your Inbox
We recommend the use of Cloudmark to block spam from your inbox: Cloudmark Desktop is the proven solution to automatically stop over 98% of spam and fraud with zero false positives. Free 30-day trial.[/i]”
Notice how it reassures the reader that someone is looking out for them, THEN launches into an advert for Anti-Spam software!!
I have a sneaky, irritating feeling that the initial spammer simply never existed.