[rescue] Spam (was: Perverse Question)

[r.stricklin]

On Saturday, June 7, 2003, at 07:51  AM, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:

>> I honestly have never use SpamAssassin.  Properly choosing when and 
>> where to use your e-mail address works wonders.
>
> Yeah, but screw up _just_once_, and your address will be on every spam 
> list
> in China, and you'll get innundated.

It doesn't even matter. It doesn't make one bit of difference when and 
where you use your email address, you WILL get spammed. There's no 
disincentive for spammers to mail to even "plausible" addresses.

This story is true, by the way.

I have an email account that I have never used for anything. I've never 
sent mail from it, I've never given the address to anyone. I've never 
put it on any web form. I've never mentioned it in USENET. It's not an 
AOL or hotmail account, either. It's the account I got with my dialup 
ppp account. I never used it because I had a shell account and a vanity 
domain on a friend's server. The dialup ppp account was just so I had 
bandwidth to get to my friend's server.

A couple of years ago, I figured I should check that account, because 
it was likely my ISP had been sending system news and stuff to me at 
that address. I'd had the address for three years by that point, and 
hadn't ever bothered to check it.

I logged into the POP server... 5,500 new messages. ALL SPAM.

This was a year and a half ago.

Last year, it got 5,500 new messages. ALL SPAM.

My friend shut down his server last month, so I've been busy setting 
things up at my ISP, so I checked that account again last month.

5,500 new messages since January. ALL SPAM.

It doesn't matter who you are or where your address ends up. You will 
get spam.

ok
bear