Twitter spam?

Spam is starting to become a real problem on Twitter.

So many brands have jumped onboard and set up automated replies to tweets that contain references to the brand.

I find this highly annoying. I suspect I'm not alone in this.

Today's piece of Twitter spam is particularly weird.

I posted that I was culling a few live tracks by the Rolling Stones from my iTunes.

Moments later I had a reply from someone purporting to be a Stones fan.

Like most people sucked in by spam I clicked on a link.

My clever Macbook told me it wasn't such a good idea to have clicked on the link.

As you can see from the pic above I wasn't the only person to get this piece of spam.

Which as I said before is becoming a real problem. But what can we do about it?

And more importantly what are Twitter doing about it?

Straight in the bin

I wrote last week about the launch of a new kind of agency.

Although I am not a fan of their corporate writing style I am interested in what they have to say. So I subscribed to their e-newsletter.

The first issue arrived in my inbox today. I deleted it without even opening it.

Not because I didn't want to read it. But because I thought it was spam.

Take a look at the pic above. Would you have opened an email from someone called FRANk?

Email of the week

Normally spam emails go straight to my junk mail. But today I got one that caught my eye. I have chosen some wonderful highlights for your entertainment and perusal:

"I am Mr. Richard Hizon, an attorney at law. I write you in respect of a deceased client of mine, a military defector in the Vietnam war who died in a plane crash [Gulf Air Flight 801] with the whole passengers on board on August 23, 2000."

A Vietnam war defector! WTF!?

"You are hereby notified of this situation since you share the same last name with the deceased so that you can come forward as the next of kin and beneficiary of the funds left behind by my late client before it is confiscated or declared unserviceable."

Same last name as me. Wow.

Last time I checked my surname was in the top 50 most common names in the world!

If you also happen to be a Johnson and have not received this email here are the contact details you need to lay your claim for $8,000,000:

HIZON & ASSOCIATES
ADVOCATES SOLICITORS,
LEVEL 12,MENARA TJB
NO 9,JALAN SYED
80000 JOHOR BAHRU
MALAYSIA.

What's that up in the sky?

In the early days of this blog I often used to write about urban spam.

You know the kind of thing - ambient stunts and other dodgy 'strictly for award entry' type stuff.

Well today I learned about another utterly unnecessary advertising medium.

The Flogo.

Actually that's Flogo with a small TM above the name.

With Flogos you can create a bloody huge logo or message out of soapy bubbles that floats in the sky like skywriting.

Why? You're probably thinking.

I have no idea. No idea at all.

Looks like I'm rich!

Click pic to enlarge.