OT- Junk Mail

Will · #1 January 19th, 2003, 02:02 AM

Ok, please tell me if this is not the height of all irony:

I have an e-mail address for a summer program I participated in. I didn't use it for anything else, and the address only appears once on the web page of that same summer program.

I just checked this account. I got a spam message trying to sell me a junk mail filter!

Not entirely sure why they're expecting to get any response to this. If it is in fact a legitimate mail filter, it will obviously leave a huge hole for the seller to send you Messages, and thus a big hole to whomever the seller decides to sell the filter penetration method to.

Just felt like ranting...

couslee · #2 January 19th, 2003, 02:48 AM

Yea, an the people that provide you that email address NEVER sell lists of their email accounts. that would be unethical.

Baron Munchausen · #3 January 19th, 2003, 03:16 AM

Just FYI...

Hotmail accounts are spam-cursed. Microsoft will harvest the addresses that you send mail TO even if you have opted out of their 'direct' spam list. Isn't that clever? You opted out of receiving spam, but they didn't ask if you wanted all recipients of your emails to be spammed. This is Bill Gates at his slimiest. So, whenever you send an email to someone from a Hotmail account you are pointing a gazillion spammers at that account.

Did anyone working with you on that project use a Hotmail account?

Other ISPs might have similar 'gotcha' policies, of course.

capnq · #4 January 19th, 2003, 07:58 PM

There are also harvester bots that crawl the Web mining e-mail addresses from any site they encounter.

We even sometimes get spam at the admin requests address at PBW.

capnq
PBW admin

tbontob · #5 January 20th, 2003, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Just FYI...

Hotmail accounts are spam-cursed. Microsoft will harvest the addresses that you send mail TO even if you have opted out of their 'direct' spam list. Isn't that clever? You opted out of receiving spam, but they didn't ask if you wanted all recipients of your emails to be spammed. This is Bill Gates at his slimiest. So, whenever you send an email to someone from a Hotmail account you are pointing a gazillion spammers at that account.

Did anyone working with you on that project use a Hotmail account?

Other ISPs might have similar 'gotcha' policies, of course.

Yuk!

Suicide Junkie · #6 January 20th, 2003, 02:56 AM

I once reactivated my Hotmail account, just to sign up for, IIRC, Webshots. I got 3 spam Messages BEFORE I got my sign up confirmation message!

Fortunately, I don't use that account for anything except signing up for things, so I never have to read the spam

Ed Kolis · #7 January 20th, 2003, 03:38 AM

Shh! We're not allowed to talk about harvesters!

{confused silence}

Oh, that's right, this is the SE4 forum, not MOO3

Kamog · #8 January 20th, 2003, 10:05 AM

I get tons of junk e-mail everyday and have to be constantly deleting unwanted Messages, something like 20 per day. I used to read them all but I stopped doing that because it's a waste of time. You can usually tell which Messages are junk by looking at the subject and sender. There's tons of get-rich-quick schemes, chain Messages, insurance services offers, credit card company offers, adult web site offers, university degree by mail deals, weight loss products, viagra solicitations, all sorts of fake prize win Messages, deals to sell you herbs or drugs that's supposed to enhance your anatomy in various ways, pyramid schemes, Nigerian letter scams, mortgage deals, etc.

Some of the the subject lines are cleverly disguised to look like a legitimate message from a friend or someone you know. How do all these people get your e-mail address? The mail filters aren't perfect and don't work that well. I found that the only way to stop all this junk is to change your e-mail address every so often, but that is inconvenient...

couslee · #9 January 20th, 2003, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
Oh, that's right, this is the SE4 forum, not MOO3

LMAO.

or apolywonton

couslee · #10 January 20th, 2003, 10:23 AM

For starters, I never use my ISP email address for anything. I always use my Yahoo account. They have a farily decent spam filer that routs about 75% of the garbage into a bulk mail folder, which can be deleted enmasse with a single click. as for the ones that do go to the inbox, I either go down the list and just delete the obvious ones, and the more sneaky ones i report to yahoo as spam. I don't know if the reporting does any good, but it makes me feel better knowing that I at least tried. when things get too bad, it really is not hard to start another yahoo account, and do an addy book mailing letting others know your new addy. my Last addy change was in 2000. so the filters work fine for me. I don't blame the spammers that much, as i have no problem putting my email into a free pron site i want to peruse for a day. the spam from that goes to the bulk mail and I never have to look at it. I delete an average 50-70 emails from the bulk folder daily.

Spam is just part of the web. Just like commercials are part of normal network TV. they are here to stay, get use to it. learn to work around them and don't let them get your goat. otherwise you will be spending good money of spam filters when you could take that same 50 bucks and get SEV, or Moo3. lol