Nasty smells on the web


The day began just hoping for three points against Spurs, a tall order but not beyond us. This rant came on as I found yet again that there was a mini-epidemic of spamming and phishing to deal with …

Since we exposed the odious activites of someone or something calling him/itself Andrew A Sailer, the name has been refreshingly absent from the comments left at Salut! Sunderland and other Salut! sites.

In Mr (or Robot) Sailer’s place, we are now seeing a lot of activity from people or computer-generated entitities intent on selling us dodgy loans, guides to martial arts and anti-perspiration products.

At least, unlike Sailer Boy, none of these cretinous web parasites has so far invaded the warm and respectful tribute paid by Pete Sixsmith to our fellow Sunderland supporter, Stephen “Squinny” Wilson , who was murdered in an attack outside a Bishop Auckland pub.

But they have refined his/its trick of pretending to be here to make a genuine comment, in the case of one moron plugging the Ultimate Guide to Sports and Games with the aid of a few words of wisdom on spammers.

Sites like these are usually labours of love. What income they tend to produce is small beer when set against the time and energy needed to keep them going. The last thing we need is having to devote time to eradicating these mindless link polluters.

I’ve tried deleting as spam. I’ve added insults to the messages while also erasing the links. Has the time come for something more drastic? Is it a fair defence to a charge of murder that you only killed a spammer?

But talking of nasty smells, and not the ones under the armpit that Stop Sweating wants to deal with, come back here before the Burnley game for a special treat in the Who Are You? series.

There’s a priceless recollection of the moment a player who served both clubs – Burnley and SAFC – shocked a young spectator by breaking wind on the touchline. If only we could do that in the collective face of the worldwide community of spammers and phishermen.

Colin Randall

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