Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

I just had a phone call from my tv/phone/internet provider, VirginMedia. The guy opened the conversation and said “Hello Mr Hill, I’m from VirginMedia, can I have your password please?”

“WTF?” I said. “No, you can’t until you tell me what this call is about.”

“I can’t tell you that until you confirm your password.”

“Um, well, until you confirm what this is about, you’re not getting my password. I didn’t ask for this call, you could be anybody.”

“I can ask you some security questions?”

“No thanks.” I hung up.

So I rang customer service, blah blah, anyway to cut a long story short I spoke to a very nice lady who confirmed that they did want to speak to me, but she also confirmed that the guy didn’t follow procedure correctly (although another person in the the chain earlier said he *did* follow procedure. Huh?)

I asked to make a formal complaint that the procedure sucks, is alarmist and arouses customer suspicion in these times where we’re supposed to be more vigilant with our personal details. Whether or not anything changes is anyone’s guess.

Anyone else experienced something like this?

Oh, and points to anyone who understands the title of this post… it’s not what you might think!

Spammers used to try and encourage personal growth — literally — by using subject lines that suggest you need a bigger, harder, more energetic trouser snake*.

So it’s kinda funny to see a new trend with the subject lines in my spam box: “What a stupid face you have here” and “You look really stupid”. Rather than trying to encourage us or flatter us, they are now using the opposite tack: insult us. I think this will probably work better — no-one likes people to think badly of them and I reckon a few bruised egos or insecure souls will be clicking on those links.

This is briefly amusing, though it does alarm me somewhat to wonder how far this could go. It’s not much of a leap from this to use subject lines that are bullying, intimidating and downright threatening. Maybe if this happens, catching and prosecuting spammers will suddenly become as important as catching terrorists — with all the curtailing of civil liberties that seems to entail.

I shudder at the thought.

*Yes, even you ladies.

You’ve gotta hand it to the spammers.

In an effort to bypass spam filters, their “Enlarge your penis” emails now have even sillier subject lines. Just today I received these: “Bomb her womb from your huge cannon!”, “Elongation of your baby-maker size is not a dream! (Your banana is too small)”, “Most popular way to increase your dummy length (Your Big Daddy is too small)” and “Stop being a sniper, be RAMBO”.

I’m actually looking at my spam folder regularly now, just for new laughs. I guess their plan worked!