The Web Standards Project is
a grassroots coalition fighting for standards
that ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies
for all.
It has come to our attention that some spammers are now using code from the Browser Upgrade Campaign in their spam messages, or on "spamvertised" Web sites. This is apparently done in order to discriminate against people using JavaScript-capable mail readers and browsers that do not provide support for W3C Web standards.
Please note that we had nothing to do with the unsolicited email!
We find it amusing that spammers, intrusive and vile as they are, would choose to exclude some people from the messages those people didn't ask for in the first place. But the stupidity of spammers is not our concern.
Unfortunately, one side effect of this abuse is to shift apparent blame for the spam onto the Web Standards Project. We have never sent any unsolicited bulk mail, and in fact only rarely do we use any email address in the webstandards.org domain for outbound mail. More commonly, our members reply to mail sent to webstandards.org email aliases using their own, private, email accounts.
If you receive unsolicited mail claiming to be from this domain, the sender is almost certainly forged.
Another manner in which mail claiming to be from this domain may be sent is by way of computer viruses or worms, such as Klez, which forge the sender address based on the infected system's address book. Usually, a quick inspection of the email headers can tell whether the mail was sent by the address claimed in the 'From:' header. More information about Klez can be found at Web sites maintained by anti-virus software vendors. For example, here is the page discussing Klez from MacAfee.
If you're running a vulnerable system, such as Windows, please be sure to use anti-virus software to protect the rest of us. If you'd like to notify someone of the virus, try your local IT staff or Internet service provider, or someone else who may be able to help you identify the sender.
Please report such mail by forwarding the message to [email protected]. Include full headers; anything else is completely useless. (How?)
Please understand that we cannot reply to all such reports; we're an all-volunteer organization as it is, and the reports merely add to our burden. But we do want to track the rise of such abuse, and your help is appreciated.