Captcha - now even the spammers use it

Like everyone I know I have a Spam filter on my email, unlike many people, some of my real mail looks a bit spammy to the filters so I always need to check my spam folder before deleting.

Over recent weeks I've noticed quite a few spam emails that contain no text at all, just a graphic like the one I'm displaying (After removing their website) -->

There's some interesting things about this spam.

• It's absolutely minimal. The headers in the email contain almost nothing and the body of the email contains only the image.
• There isn't even a link, which is why the image tries to get the user to manually enter the spammer's URL.
  
• The image is low quality and distorted -- probably to try and defeat optical character readers.
• It still doesn't work. Google's spam filter (and I assume other major filters) detect it with perfect accuracy. As they keep coming, I can only assume that sufficient minor filters don't.
  

The really ironic thing about this spam though is the apparent use of captcha. So many spammers use robots to leave their ads on bulletin boards, forums, blog comments and more that all these resources now make us decode distorted images (captcha) before we're allowed to leave genuine messages. Not only have the spammers worked hard to "improve" their software to defeat captcha but now they are trying to use it to defeat the guardians of our in-boxes.

Gmail Goggles - Stops drunken emailing

Well, not quite. It's a timer based service and Google being Americans they primly describe your state on a Friday night as being "Tired", if Google understands irony it might be a reference to Private Eye's "Tired and emotional" euphemism.

Mail you send over the weekend late at night may be useful but you may regret it the next morning.

How it works is you install it through the "Labs" tab on your Gmail settings page, then before you can send an email at certain designated times you have to solve some basic arithmetic problems. Presumably you pre-set the times it's active to match your likely times for being tired and emotional.

The feature is also available for the email component of the Google Applications for Domains hosted office service.

I can see this as a great service for those who go out partying then put a hand over one eye so they can do a quick email check while they are waiting for the room to stop spinning, now I just wish the car manufacturers would install something like this to reduce the carnage on our roads by stopping people driving cars drunk.