Ron Schenone

Pfizer + Viagra + My Email Box

Posted by on Sep 9, 2007 | 13 Comments

Like most of you, I use multiple email addresses for specific purposes. I have a throw away address for signing up for specific internet offers like software in which a registration is required. Another email for business purposes and lastly a personal email address I only use to correspond with family and friends. Over the years I have gone to great lengths to try and protect my personal email account from spam, and for the most part, I have succeeded. Case in point I have been using the same personal address for well over a year through my cable carrier with no spam at all. Until the past couple weeks.

I started noticing that about two weeks ago, I started to receive spam messages for viagra. If this was just isolated to my account I may have thought nothing about it. But my wife starting receiving similar ads. Strange. So I called by carrier to find out what was going on. The tech. explained they were being bombarded with spam about viagra and were doing their best to stop the flow. But like the energizer bunny, it just kep going and going.

I still am not concerned since I have been only receiving 2 to 3 messages a day. On some days, nothing at all. But what was concerning are some of the articles I have been reading about Pfizer computers having been compromised by a botnet. Pfizer is the company that makes viagra. Allegations now are that the Pzizer computers have been running amok for the past six months spilling this garbage all over the Internet.

Now there are rumors that since Pfizer hasn’t cleaned up their mess, that this may be a deliberate to bolster the advertising. Though I personally would hope that this is not true, it does make one wonder. Lets fact it. corporate America has lost a lot of its shine to its armor and has suffered many a dent during the past few years.

So my question is this. Has anyone else been plagued with this stuff?

Comments welcome.

[tags]pfizer, spam, botnet, computers, internet, [/tags]

  • marc klink

    I wonder if the targeting is regional. Here, in Southern California, the viagra and penis-enlargement stuff stopped about 6 – 9 months ago. Lately the problem is home refinancing offers from companies no one has ever heard of and insane work from home stuff.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Marc,
    Maybe they just make the rounds of different ISP’s around the globe.
    Ron

  • GOOSE

    Although I only get this stuff via gmail, I was always under the impression that the content was related to the type of websites that you visit…..

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Goose,
    This was the case way back when. Now the bots have become so sophisticated that they can attack at will.
    Ron

  • Sandra

    I use sbcglobal, which was great until the offical takeover by at&t. I had to change my incoming and outgoing mailservers to reflect att.com instead of pop.yahoo or whatever it was.
    Since then I was getting lots of spams mortgages, but now it has turned to football and nfl. It actually kind of scares me, because I am a realtor, so I visit alot of real estate and mortgage related websites. Also I am a huge football fan, and visit football related sites now.
    The scariest thing though, is that I sent an email to my friends and family about a week ago, with the subject “are you ready for some football”; and in the last week, I have gotten 3 or 4 spam emails with the same subject line. Do you think its coincidence, or is big brother really watching?

    Any comments are appreciated!

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Sandra,
    Though I don’t know for sure whether it is coincidental or not, since the slogan ‘are you ready for some football’ was a ABC Monday night slogan for quite awhile, emails do sometimes come back to us in undesirable ways.

    Sending email to family and friends using only the TO: and CC: sometimes get forward beyond the intended receiver. We have all send email messages with a listing of email addresses for people we do not know pasted all through a message that has been forwarded over and over again.

    It makes me always wonder since I don’t know any of these people, how many times my email address inadvertently gets spread around the Internet.

    Just a thought.

  • C Williams – Llantrisant (Wales UK)

    I’m currently getting perhaps 10+ spam mails a day!

    After it started, it’s been getting progressively worse. I’ve had a Dubai Car Sales company asking if I want to buy a Bugatti Veyron (I wish) mostly though is Viagra & similar meds, software, porn or penis enlargement.

    I haven’t followed any of these links to see where they go just in case it’s viral.

    When you look into the email contents they appear to originate within legitimate organisations. I contacted one of these, (Cedarville college in US), to say hey guys one of your employees/ pupils is doing this & it’s really annoying. Got a reply from their IT facilities Dept stating it’s originated outside their organisation although all the senders & returns email addresses look as though they are their own. They said that they’d had a lot of similar complaints which they were investigating but the emails had such obscure origins they couldn’t track them to source.

    As if to underline this fact, and more worryingly, then received spam where the senders email address was MY EMAIL ADDRESS!! (Was this just to show me what they could do?!)

    I don’t know whether my email addy has been sold onto a spam marketing company and this is actual marketing.

    I don’t know whether I’ve p*ssed someone off & they’re wreaking havoc as their retribution.

    I don’t know whether all of this stuff is generated by the companies who sell anti-spam software to get us to buy that??

    One things for sure, if you’re an exec of a company and you think that marketing by spam is a good way to go – wrong call!!! There’s nothing more likely to get peoples backs up so it’s wasted money.

    The isp providers, etc. Really need to tackle this stuff and make some serious investment so it’s rejected at source.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    C Williams – Llantrisant (Wales UK),
    Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

  • kim idol

    i need someone to email me about this.

  • Donna

    I get on average, about 25-30 Pfizer and Lilly in my inbox daily. It doesn’t do a thing if I “block sender” They still land up in my inbox! I am getting so SICK of deleting them only to have them show up again and again. And they’re not even addressed to me! I usually don’t look up any ‘drugs’ that would’ve gotten my IP address from. I do run my virus and Spybot S&D programs regularly. I did a search to see if others were having the same problem – I’m glad to have come across yours. I hope something is done soon and completely eradicate this bot or company that’s responsible.

  • Earofdoom

    The same thing has been happening to me, but with only 1 email every 2 days or so. The problem isn’t the amount of spam, but I would like to know why they are sending emails about viagra to a sophmore in high school.

  • http://www.google.pl greetingsfrompoland

    Hello to all ! Greetings From Poland. very Good Page !

  • leigh

    My account have been getting them since I created the account around 10 years ago. and lately i’m getting a lot in my junk box where the sender is “Pfizer (my_email_address@mail.com)
    Does anyone have this wack issue??