I’ve been receiving some interesting spam

I wrote this a while ago but never got around to publishing it, which is why the dates are from last year.

I want to make my website accessible so I make it really easy for anyone to go to the footer, find the mailto link, and send me an email. That’s why I haven’t employed tricks such as “dchen at dennisc dot net”. Unfortunately, accessible to anyone includes spammers. Of the spam I’ve received, the most interesting is stuff from web/app developers, probably because a lot of keywords in my site suggest I’d be interested in that.

Let’s take a look at this gem from Priyankshu, sent in 2022-05-05:

Hi there,

My name is Priyanshu, and we are a team of Professional IOS & Android Apps Developer with 7+ years’ experience based in India. Do you need a great App adjusted or built from scratch?

Reply me if you need any kinds of help in mobile Apps.

Let me know what you think.

Kind regards,

Priyanshu

The very next day (2022-05-06), Ameli the Wordpress expert (ugh) jumps in:

Hi,

I’m a web developer who builds amazing looking websites for small businesses. I’d like to have the chance to show you how I can improve for your business.

I’m an expert in the Wordpress website platform and many other platforms and shopping carts.

I can upgrade your existing website or build you a new one completely that has all of the modern features and functionality. Would you be available in the next few days for a quick consultation?

I’d like to share with you my ideas and some expert advice, share me your Requirements and any direct contact number.

Thank You.

Ameli

I’m sure these people are copy-pasting emails because there’s no way they have the technical skill to run a script to automatically spam random people with emails. I’m pretty sure these emails aren’t just spam but also (attempted) scams: it is likely you’ll never see the app or website these guys promise you. (I mean, what kind of developer cold-emails people without a portfolio?)

If I’m bored one day, I might scambait one of these poor chaps (or figure out if they are, contrary to all appearances, legitimate). I’d set up a burner email like notspam@dennisc.net to do it and then delete it immediately after (unless I found more people to scambait).

Oh, and a ton of people are trying to tell me that my databases for dennisc.net have been hacked. Yeah, sure…