If you’re of my generation or older you may associate the word spam with the canned meat product you find on grocery store and gas station shelves alike. Maybe you’ve even eaten a piece of fried spam on light bread slathered with mayonnaise like I have.
Since you’re using a computer or device to read this post, you are also likely familiar with using the word spam to mean any unsolicited contact you receive via the world wide web.
The most common type of internet spam arrives almost daily in your email inbox. Usually it’s someone trying to sell you a product…or something teetotally unbelievable like you’re related to a rich prince and if you’ll only send them some money they’ll send you a whole lot more money 🙂
Spam can also show up on any social media accounts you may have.
I’ve had to deal with spammers in various forms over the last 15 years of managing Blind Pig and The Acorn. Spam is the main reason I have comments set to only publish on approval. I do have a spam filter, but it doesn’t catch everything.
Since starting the Celebrating Appalachia YouTube channel I’ve also had to deal with spam on that platform. Most often it’s spammers leaving a link in a comment they hope someone will click on, but worse than that is the crazy spammers who steal my photo and make a channel with a name similar to Celebrating Appalachia. Once they have that part accomplished, they reply back to comments on my videos asking people to click a link, send them a text, or download some app. Since they have my photo it appears to be me asking for a favor even though it isn’t.
I report them to YouTube for impersonating me and block them from the channel and that takes care of the issue. But as soon as one spam account is removed another takes their place.
In one of my college classes I learned using the word spam in connection with junk email or unwanted online drivel actually came from a Monty Python skit. In 1970 Python had a skit where cans of spam kept interrupting the singing performance and kept popping up all over the place. In other words spam was showing up were it wasn’t wanted exactly like the spam we are often plagued with on the web. In the early 90s when folks first started getting bombarded by unwanted emails someone gave the junk email the moniker of spam and it stuck.
Most of the spam I get here on the Blind Pig is of the advertisement sort: coach bags, woolrich, ugg boots, etc. I also get pharmacy related spam. Both types are easy to spot. In most instances, spammers who leave blog comments are simply trying to gain back links to a specific website or product.
Spammers try to out smart filters by making their content appear normal, those are the ones that sneak through the filters. Most of the time I don’t do much more than glance at them, but every once in a while one catches my eye that makes me laugh.
Here’s a couple:
I was suggested this web site by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my problem. You’re wonderful! Thanks!
Wonderful beat! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how could I subscribe for a blog site? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright clear concept.
When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks! (Funny 🙂 I don’t even have that service!)
Hey I am so delighted I found your weblog, I really found you by error, while I was browsing on Aol for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a remarkable post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the great job. (Spammers try complimenting websites to get their comment posted.)
Guys just made a web-page for me, look at the link: click here now Tell me your credentials. (This one made me laugh 🙂 They used plain talk to let you know exactly what they want: tell me your credentials.)
I am glad to be a visitor of this gross website! , thanks for this rare information! (Gross??)
Howdy, I read your blog occasionally and I own a similar one and I was just curious if you get a lot of spam feedback? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any assistance is very much appreciated. (A spammer complaining about spam 🙂 )
Rowing machines give a low-impact workout that’s easy on the joint parts, making them ideal for
individuals with arthritis or other joint issues. Buy Rowing Machine. (Another one straight to the point: buy rowing machine!)
Sweet website , super design, rattling clean and utilise genial.
The very next time I read a blog, Hopefully it wont disappoint me just as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, nonetheless I truly believed you would have something helpful to say. All I hear is a bunch of moaning about something you can fix if you were not too busy looking for attention. (Instead of complimenting this one is trying the trash talk angle.)
I called the spammers crazy, but in reality many of them aren’t real people. A lot of spam is created by bots or AI generated programs. The fact that they are auto generated accounts for the weird syntax that is found in most of the comments.
I do my best to keep spammers at bay but they are certainly like an annoying fly that keeps landing on your bowl of banana pudding 🙂
Last night’s video: Hiraeth = Lonesome in Appalachia.
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Howdy, Tipper. Say howdy to all your folks for me. I enjoy the humor in your article. Spam used to be lunch meat. My website has endured the other type of spam also. For example, “Mrs. Fowler Jackie is a Fraud (published 8-28-2021)” is one funny article that I wrote fairly recently.
I like phone spam, when I answer by accident. I start talking in Russian. That gets a hang up. Once, I had an eager spammer get a Russian speaker. As we conversed in Russian, mine was better than his!
By the way, my paternal grandfather’s birthday was yesterday, in 1880. I just published an article, in Papaw’s honor, about my House Mountain hike #180, on his birthday. I embedded a short podcast, from the west bluff.
Y’all take care, and God bless!
One day I had little to do and started answering all the calls. I started with how glad I was that they called because I was also trying to make a living by selling magazines by phone. When they wern’t interested in buying from me I would ask for tips on how to be more successful with my calls. Some gave me tips, but most hung up.
The bad grammar is always a give away for me.
Tipper ,
Thanks for sharing .I get lonesome hearing the train horn late at night ,its a sad sound. We are so used to it sometimes you don’t hear it even being so close. I love reading your blog ,I just happened to find it and have been reading since last summer. Love the gardening but also just things in daily life. We are all the same but different.
Tina
Great post, Tipper!! I found if I engaged them in an unrelated conversation it helped to stop scammers/spammers that would call our landline. This was back in the day before internet. Yes, even then someone was trying to make a nickel off unsuspecting folks. This was before caller ID. Most often they were telling folks their car or home repair warranty had expired and they needed to renew that day. Well one day there had been more than one of these calls. I first thought maybe I should just take the phone off the hook, but that would never do. The kids were at school, hubby was at work, my mama and daddy often needed me.. so I came up with a plan. The next caller to try to scam me got a real personalized conversation. I said to him “Sonny, did your mama raise you with no manners? Why are you calling me with such drivel? Did you really think I would fall for your scam?” Then I began asking him about how his family was doing, asked about his mama, his daddy, his grandma,..etc. I asked why was he trying to scam people of their hard earned money, shaming him for falling into such a money grubbing trap..etc. Every time he tried to resume reading from his script, I would ask him another question. It kept him off balance and finally he said, “Thank you” and hung up. That’s just an example of one such scammer I had a one sided personal conversation with. One time I just said, “we gave at the office.” and hung up.
Now with these internet spammers, that’s a whole other bag of mischief. Last year I got a notice from one of the companies we do business with that my personal info had been hacked along with every other person that used their service between certain dates. Soon after I began getting the nastiest spam in my email. I feel like I need gloves on because it’s a dirty job just emptying the spam filter each day. I was told by my virus protection program that my email address along with other personal info had been found by them on something called the “dark web” and that I needed to change all my passwords, so I did. I don’t know what the dark web is, but it sounds bad. I still get these nasty spam emails because they have my email address and sell it to others to spam me too . Changing my passwords didn’t help the spam but maybe it saved my bank and other accounts from being stolen. I suspect changing emails would be a monumental task.
I for one am glad you moderate your website and only allow posts through that are legit and decent.
If I have any spam, I never open it, I delete it but it’s ridiculous and getting worse. Husband says the same thing. Between the spammers and the scammers, I do wish they would leave folks alone. What really is sad, I just read about two elderly folks this very week scammed out of money and it’s happening more and more. And the saddest is these thugs getting deceased folks phone numbers and using them to scam someone. Get a life please. Tipper, last night’s video was wonderful! It touched my heart, all those pictures you shared were so precious. They way you read, just amazing. I think we all can say, we get lonesome in one way or another. Thank you so much for sharing that.
Thanks for sharing Miss Tipper, you are so right spammers are so annoying and aggravating., and I don’t like flies on my bowl of banana puddin either lol (great analogy)
They come at us all from every direction to these days, we experience them on our YouTube channel, emails & also by texts or phone calls. I had one this morning call my phone and now they even use a local number with the same area code as where you live making you think it’s someone local that you might know.
But please don’t let ‘Em discourage you too much because we all love what you’re doing on here as well as @celebratingappalachia.
Stay vigilant everyone, because you don’t have to have a YouTube channel nor a Blog to get scammed these days.
SPAM is bad but SCAM SPAM is even worse. They are greedy and criminal people. SCAM phone calls are irritating especially if you are of a certain age and people think you’re dotty.
My husband loved spam but me not so much:) I’m glad you can identify the other type of commenters and get rid of them.
The video regarding the word Hiraeth for Lonesome surely is the way I feel about my family, especially lonesome for the loved ones that have passed on to heaven.
Hi Tipper, wow, this is a timely post. My daughter called me yesterday to say my Facebook account had been hacked. I’m not sure I would have even known, except my friends were all getting a ‘new friend request’ from me. My daughter reported it, hopefully the powers that be can do something.
I loved your post on Hiraeth – lonesome, the older I get I feel this type of lonesome so much more than I did years ago. Lonesome for my people gone and lonesome for our home long gone. I love that word, thank you!
Thanks Tipper, Linda
God bless your spam, I like mine on bread with mayo , but I know about the other kind, I have had to change my debit card info and my email address before, unwanted, ugly stuff, got attached through a download, God bless you and your family
Mom used to fry Spam until it was crispy and brown. She coated the light bread with plenty of mayonnaise before adding a big slice of onion. We loved Span and having sandwiches for dinner meant fewer dishes to wash.
The internet and phone span can trick the most suspicious of us. As I waited for a return phone call from my online computer tech support, I got a spam call offering the exact same service. That was a weird coincidence and the timing was perfect so I almost fell for it. That made me even more cautious. I read somewhere that internet bill paying is much safer than the USPS where an estimated 85% of identity theft happens due to lost, stolen, or misdelivered mail.
First, I do enjoy a fried Spam on toasted bread with some mayonnaise and once in a while I’ll add cheese. As for spammers on social media, I see it and report it. I know my YouTube channels I watch regularly would not ask for anything, or tell me I’m a winner by just replying on my comment, so I report them. I can’t tell you how many spammers I have reported from your YouTube channel Celebrating Appalachia and your girls channel The Pressley Girls. I guess it’s because I comment the most on y’all’s channels than most the other channels I subscribe to on YouTube. When I see replies to my comments that are spam, I have to laugh because I think, the spammers must think us subscribers are gullible or just plain stupid to fall for their tricks. I do understand some of these spammers are very convincing to a lot of people, which is sad, but I’m definitely not one to be had by them. If these spammers and hackers would but all that time and effort into helping people instead of stealing from them, they could make positive changes instead of negative ones in the world.
I had no idea that the origin of “spam” came from a Monty Python skit! I always learn something new from your blog or videos! I kind of cringed when you were describing the “complement spammer” as I’ve been known to show my gratitude through compliments! Rest assured that I’m not a spammer when you read my attempts to let you and your girls know how much I enjoy your content! ❤️
You have certainly been as successful with your “Celebrate Appalachia” channel as I knew you would. I was concerned, though, as I had used YouTube for a good while and heard others complain of vicious attacks on their channel. I got rid of my landline, because it was disrupting my day constantly with spammers wanting to sell me a warranty or fix my computer. Best thing I ever did! Most of the bill was just nuisance charges they had drummed up over the many years I had the landline. Only about half was actually the bill. My old email is so full of spam, I cannot use it anymore. Still, all businesses want an email, so I use different emails for different reasons. I do pay everything on line, because everything is already on line. I can go in easily about twice a month to make certain all is well, plus I have bank notifications. I still know people who drive from place to place paying bills while they are out. You have such valuable skills and such unique knowledge that I am certain you have helped people more than you could ever know. Your channel will keep growing, so glad you have a way of handling the spammers that try to disrupt everything good.
Spam is very popular in Hawaii thanks to WWII and our GIs. There are restaurants there that serve spam dishes, yum. As for the other Spam, nasty stuff. Leave it to Monty Python to come up with a way to make it funny. As always Tipper, interesting and informative posts from you and your followers.
Well, those were hilarious but I am sure they are an aggravation in the life of your excellent blog. Keep up the good work. Your readers love you.
Have you received in your mailbox a pack of Lambs Quarter seeds? If not, I have been scammed. Scamming is not the same as spamming. Spamming is bombarding you with advertising in hopes you will be fool enough to buy what they are selling. Scamming is selling you something but delivering you nothing.
We use Spam to make what I call Spamwiches. It’s just Spam cut into small cubes, shredded lettuce, mixed together with mayo. We eat it on toast. It’s kind of like the ham salad sandwich they used to serve at Woolworth’s lunch counter. We actually like it better than ham salad. There was a time our budget couldn’t accommodate the price of ham.
I’d like to comment on the video about lonesomeness. My parents were musicians and like most people who are, they seemed to attract other musicians as friends. My siblings and I spent nearly every Saturday night playing out under the stars while hearing our parents and their friends music wafting out the open door. When we lost my mother in 2002, the only time we saw both of our parents cry, was when they realized they wouldn’t be making music together anymore. Losing their music was such a loss for all of us. The song that accompanied the video brought tears to my eyes. Funny how people you don’t even know can share the exact same memories!
Very good post!! You had a spammer on the Facebook page this weekend, too. The one good thing about them when they leave replies on all of your commenters on a you tube video – they raise your comment count for that video. That should help with the algorithms for that particular video!!! I often wondered how the “spam” name was applied to those nuisances. Thank you for that info! My Mom did not serve Spam at all. I think my Dad did not like it. I never tasted it until I moved out of my parents’. I don’t eat it often because I just don’t care for the taste of a lot salt, but sometimes I do get a craving and give into it. Every time I do, it reminds me of a taco place in El Cajon, CA, where I grew up. I love the Mexican food in San Diego county – hands down the best in the world. Of course I am prejudiced- it’s what I grew up with. This particular taco place makes the most runny, over beaten guacamole you have ever had. It doesn’t taste bad, and actually it doesn’t have much taste at all, it just looks like soup instead of thick guacamole. It is so bad looking … but you can’t help going back for it. A couple of weeks ago I was telling my sister how much I missed getting a taco there – the shells are deep fried and filled with shredded roast beef, cheese, sour cream, onions, lettuce and tomato – and that green stuff that is supposed to imitate guacamole. Boy is it addicting though!
Donna. : )
Think it’s interesting how we develop a 6th sense about spammers. Whether they be Bots, AIs, or ‘foreigners’ from Nigeria or other distant locations.
Guess American culture has a certain nuance to it.
Spam… never heard of it until the mid-1960s after I got married, due to my subculture. When I tried to open the can, my first whiff was ‘dog food’. As the years rolled by, experience came quietly. It’s no longer part of my life, except internet variety and I just bag that to send it to the trash.
I miss the days of junk postal mail compared to the internet nuisance. My father in law liked the junk mail he got to use to start fire in the wood heater !
Your exactly right Tipper, they are a fly or maybe a mosquito both very annoying!
Thanks Tipper, this was informative. I really enjoy your blog and also enjoy reading comments. I do appreciate the time you take to remove all the spam from the comments! I have been following you for most of the 15 years. Our mutual friend, Don Casada, suggested your blog. So glad he did!
I work in IT and usually it’s really easy to spot this stuff as no one speaks like that. The translation program doesn’t always work well for them. If it doesn’t sound like southern, it’s getting deleted.
I had a fun one happen a couple of weeks ago. He called three times to inform me i was being served. Told me I had the right to call and dispute it.(seriously) otherwise he would show up at my home and work in 15 minutes (wow, at the same time!) he said my address and SS number would be made public. Needless to say he never showed. I worry about other people he may have frightened into giving information.
I don’t remember the number of times I was suppose to be arrested. I usually will not answer an unknown number but have answered a local number only to find out it was a telemarketer. I like to ask them why should I believe anything you say if you are untruthful about the phone number you are calling from. This has left some speechless.
Shoot, my family was to poor to buy Spam, we had to eat the cheaper stuff, Treet! It is pretty obvious that my computer knowledge is very limited. I try to be very careful with what I will click on with emails or the ads on legitimate websites. I don’t like paying my bills online. The phone calls bother me more, especially back when I was trying to sleep during the day because of working the graveyard (night) shift. This was when my Daddy was still living but in poor health and I was afraid to turn my phone off in case I was needed. I’m from a generation that bought items by dialing an 800 phone number on what I think is now called a landline phone. I do it, but I am uneasy about buying online, I recently had to get a new credit card because of being charged for a subscription to a well known magazine that I didn’t make. I know I ignorant about a lot of the new ways of doing things, but my thinking goes something like this, if someone is smart enough to secure a website someone else out there is smart enough to figure a way to break through that security. I know snail mail can get stolen but I haven’t heard of it being hacked. If someone got into my bank account, they might feel sorry for me and help me out by making a deposit to me!
Spammers are inventive and work very hard to get yoir attention and/or money. When my cell phone rings, there is a voice that says ‘call from potential spam. Of course I don’t even look but later on I will, try to call that number back, usually disconnected or something, and then I block it. I think between the FB page and cell phone, I block 5 to 10 a day. When I use to complain, my MIL would say, honey they are just trying to make money, to which I would say, Bless their hearts, and it would cause a chuckle . But, speaking of the other ‘spam’. I and my friend have made and canned spam. We grind the meat ourselves and know exactly what is in it. Very tasty and has a long shelf live. Thanks again for an interesting blog. Looking forward to tomorrow’s beginning of a new book. God Bless.