Mommy Guilt

5:30 PM -- Fun fact: There are at least 23 different dates used to celebrate Mother's Day around the world. But spammers, of course, are focused on the most populous one, the North American celebration. (That would be this Sunday, May 13. Ahem.)

Sophos today reported a spike in Mother's Day-related spam, pushing flowers, chocolate, fruit baskets, etc., to procrastinators who either forgot, or couldn't decide what to get Mom. Some of these messages are harmless, annoying sales pitches, but some of them will be malware-infested, too, with infected links and other goodies besides the candy they're hawking.

Advice from Sophos: "Don't buy and do not reply" to any unsolicited commercial email. At best, your purchase only encourages more spam, of course, and at worst, you could lose your credit card number.

Sophos is urging a boycott on responding to spam (nice try), even appealing to the guilt in every adult child: "Next time spammers offer you 'something for the weekend,' ask yourself whether your mom would approve." (That one hurt.)

The bigger question should go to the spammers and phishers: Just what would your mother think of her "baby" preying on other kids or husbands/fathers, desperate for last-minute gift ideas? I mean, didn't you guys have mommies, too?

(Heavy sigh, disapproving look.)

Just doing my part to stop spam.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading