Spamity spam, wonderful spam

Let’s talk spam.

Not the “Spiced Ham” of canned Spam fame on supermarket shelves, but the annoying, irritating, sometimes-amusing-and-often-frustrating varieties of spam in our email boxes. Usually, these emails go to a spam or junk email folder where we can just delete them … or report them.

Some of these emails are legitimate offers sent to bulk address lists, particularly if we’ve ever expressed an interest in a product or service. For example, I get emails from higher education institutions because I am researching Ph.D. programs (or chef school, either way). My email address was captured and sold to the organizations contacting me, and, because of the bulk nature of these messages, they go to my spam folder.

There are emails that come out nowhere, with no relevance to anything I’ve ever read, watched, or researched online, such a lawsuit notification for a drug I’ve never heard of. I also get “Greeting [sic], My Dear” types of emails telling me a long-lost relative or foreign government to send me a ton of money … in exchange for my bank account information.

Attempts to get personal information, called “phishing,” are often transparent, with bad spelling and grammar, and goofy “from” addresses. Some, on the other hand, are pretty sophisticated, appearing to come from legitimate businesses alerting me about a problem with my account. Note: I always call the institution directly for verification.

Recently I tracked the types of spam emails I get. In a 7-day period, 70 emails went to my spam folder. Of these, 25 were for products or services. Of course, not all of these are scam emails and came from traditional direct marketing firms who are sending in bulk (and whose reputations are surely suffering because of the phishing scams).

Another 18 were about finance of some sort, including loans, credit cards, and credit checks, as well as Obamacare and even funeral insurance. Medical services and drug offers – including the lawsuit they want me in – totaled 10 spam emails, and higher education came in at five. I also received another five from foreign “governments” or individuals wanting me to click on their links … for my own personal gain, of course.

Two were from employment sites, and three of these weren’t spam at all so I moved them to my inbox.

I also occasionally receive emails that appear to come from my friends, but don’t. These use the person’s actual email name, but not their email domain name such as Gmail.com. They

contain phishing links for unsuspecting recipients, saying something like, “Check this out!” There were two of these.

Disturbingly, though, one of them was from “Andrea Doray.” Several friends had alerted me that they were getting bogus emails from me, and then one showed up in my own spam folder. I reported it to my email service , and I encourage you to do the same for spam you receive.

One amusing part of all this, though, is that when I open my spam folder, the page header is a recipe for the real Spam, such as Spicy Ham Kabobs, or Spam Confetti Pasta. Today’s is Creamy Spam Broccoli Casserole –; sounds good … and definitely more unappetizing than the spam in my email.