SPAM Targeting by Last Name
I received a piece of Hebrew, Israeli SPAM yesterday (which Spambayes miraculously managed to catch), and it got me wondering: How the Hell did I get on Israeli SPAM list?
I've given to Israeli charities and belong to/support pro-Israeli groups in the U.S., but that should peg me as a pro-Israel American, not an Israeli. And the SPAM was clearly intended for a Hebrew-speaking Israeli:
They want to know if I need workers? Um... I don't
So I brought it up to my boss, Kevin Lee of Did-it.com, and he had an interesting theory: Spammers are targeting us by our last names.
My last name sounds Jewish (Feldblum), so I get Israeli SPAM
Kevin Lee (who looks like this), get Asian-language SPAM (I think its for dating: pic1; pic2; pic3)
An intern, Jeremy Braff, gets German SPAM (about t-shirts, as far as we can tell using Babel Fish)
Does anyone have any corroborating evidence?
I've given to Israeli charities and belong to/support pro-Israeli groups in the U.S., but that should peg me as a pro-Israel American, not an Israeli. And the SPAM was clearly intended for a Hebrew-speaking Israeli:
They want to know if I need workers? Um... I don't
So I brought it up to my boss, Kevin Lee of Did-it.com, and he had an interesting theory: Spammers are targeting us by our last names.
My last name sounds Jewish (Feldblum), so I get Israeli SPAM
Kevin Lee (who looks like this), get Asian-language SPAM (I think its for dating: pic1; pic2; pic3)
An intern, Jeremy Braff, gets German SPAM (about t-shirts, as far as we can tell using Babel Fish)
Does anyone have any corroborating evidence?
For more information about SPAM Targeting by Last Name, see these resources:
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