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February 18, 2013

I have stated in several previous posts (and, of course, in the book) that the more a spammer professes that the unsolicited message you just received is not spam, the more likely it really is spam.

The tactic continues in the modern day, as demonstrated in a spam message selling bulk SMS messages for delivery to African countries. Check out this disclaimer at the bottom of the message:

P.S. This is an advertisement and a promotional mail strictly on the guidelines of CAN-SPAM act of 2003. We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form. We have found your mail address through our own efforts on the web search and not through any illegal way. If you find this mail unsolicited, please click on Unsubscribe link Below if you want to Opt-Out from Our Mailing List and we will take care that you do not receive any further promotional mail

Unsubscribe

Not only were some requirements missing from the message (conveniently absent from the itemized compliance list), but the "Unsubscribe" text is not a link. I don't mean a broken piece of HTML, but complete non-link markup for the word.