Charles on… anything that comes along

Ho hum. For techies only. While you’re reading this, probably the server is being irked by a comment spammer trying to post comments to point to a card-playing site.

They don’t appear (150-odd in 5 hours). I’ve tweaked the plugin which simply deletes them at once to report the http_user_agent that’s trying to post them. This gives ‘Jakarta Commons-HttpClient/2.0.1′ and reports that the http_connection_status (usually “stay open’ for normal connections, I think) is ‘close’.

Here’s the Google search: it’s an Apache program. Anyone got an idea why and how comment spammers are up to this? Nothing much turns up on this. Or am I the first to notice it, which seems astronomically unlikely?

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Google, Yahoo and MSN to fight comment spam with "don't follow" link instruction; spammers unlikely to be worried (20 January 2005; score: 57.19%)
• Sometimes you forget that there are clueless spammers too (18 January 2005; score: 50.44%)
• How are would-be spammers registering on my Wordpress blog if I've disabled registering? (15 February 2007; score: 49.76%)

Verrry interesting tale in the Guardian’s Jobs & Money section about “Fraudsters go Underground” - basically, fitting a small and colour-matched plastic slot over the place where your card should go in the ATM.

Police say these cloning devices usually come with a pinhole camera. The device records the user’s card details, while the camera films the PIN number. Once the crooks have the card details, it is relatively easy to produce a cloned copy of the card which can access money from individual bank accounts. Police say cloned cash cards can be ready for use within an hour of details being obtained. The beauty of the crime is individuals are unaware that their card has been copied and that thousands of pounds may be disappearing from accounts.

Scared yet? The photos (only in print, it seems, unless someone wants to send a link) were very convincing, showing the “before and after” at Hammersmith tube station.

More interesting scams in general from Jobs&Money at http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Cash machine card skimming: the simple way you can avoid it (23 February 2007; score: 75%)
• How does porn get on your machine? Well... (9 February 2005; score: 61.07%)
• ISP Prime and Phantographics - fraudsters or just incompetent? (21 May 2005; score: 43.03%)