Today's winning entry in the 'ludicrous spammer disclaimer' stakes goes to iCMG, whose disclaimer reads:

You are receiving this e-mail because you happen to be either our client or were added to our comprehensive database on account of your contribution in the IT domain ...

As further proof that you're dealing with a classy operation, their website includes a pop-up that reads:

WAIT WAIT WAIT ... Are you looking for architecture services? We have SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER for you. Simply click "OK" button to chat with smart agent.

Most often seen on spamvertized websites promoting the kind of 'miracle' products you see advertised on daytime TV, these 'smart agents' consist of an ELIZA-style keyword matcher that regurgitates advertising pitch-points at you for as long as you can be bothered to type something back.

With mail filters getting better and users becoming more suspicious of mail from unknown sources, spammers need to find ways to get their spam sent for them by third parties that are more likely to be trusted. This will lead to a growth in what I call proxy spam.

For a few weeks, I've been receiving unsolicited emails from a trio of Arizona politicians with a website at robson-mcclure-stump.com. Now, without warning, the messages have begun advertising mcclure-stump.com. There's no mention of poor Robson, not a whisper of what might have happened to him. Did he fall out with his colleagues? Did he defect to the Democrats? What could he have done to justify erasing him so abruptly from the pages of the Internet?

Today's crop of spam includes an apparent advertisement for a language school in Buenos Aires. A few extracts will give the flavor.

J.B.Wilkinson & Son established in 1776 Stratford-on-Avon as Masters on grammar schools ... Fellow sons and daughters and non native english children where accepted and taught the school's private programs bases on Formal English Language ... Since 1901 expanded to Adults Teaching and Performance ... J.B.Wilkinson & Son is now in Argentina openning suscriptions to teach the English Language with teaching technics elaborated by our Masters to make Spoken English fluent, fast and easy to accomplish.

I'm actually having difficulty believing that this was really sent by ‘ye old masters on teaching’, J.B.Wilkinson & Son Ltd, and isn't either a complicated joke or an attempt by a rival to sabotage their business. They even screwed up the message itself, with a recipient address welded onto the end of the 'From' line, and random HTML tags in the 'Subject'.

A few news sites and blogs have been discussing the news that John McCain's website encourages supporters to submit their endorsement of McCain in the form of comments on a selected list of political sites. The site offers some daily suggested ‘talking points’ that supporters can use, and in return for diligent comment-spamming, the most prolific posters stand to earn various McCain-themed rewards.

Hell hath no fury like a marketer duped. A company called Javelin Marketing has posted a press release in which they claim that an email list vendor sold them a 100,000 address mailing list with an 85% bounce rate. According to Javelin, the list cost them $14,000 and the massive wave of non-deliverables led to their email hosting service canceling their account. Ouch.