At 12:40 PM -0600 02/21/01, annie@geekbabe.com wrote:
>What's been bothering me lately is I've been getting more and more spam
>to this address (the one that's in the FAQ and on the website) that
>implies
>I've done something to opt-in to their list.
I assume they think it will keep down the number of complaints. Most
ISPs won't act without a sufficient number of complaints to assure that
the complainer isn't the kook, and with various obfuscations being
applied to spam, some spams don't generate all that many complaints. So
if the spammer can cut the number of complaints in half by careful
wording, it may let them stay in business longer.
Same for the footers that say "under bill blah blah, this message
cannot be considered spam" etc. The key word is "bill". Not "law": they
are referring to bills that were introduced but did not pass. If they
actually claim law, they are lying, either as to the existence or as to
the applicability. You should take this as a warning to oppose bad spam
legislation and support good spam legislation -- there have been
several bills introduced which would essentially formalize the legality
of current spam practices. See http://www.cauce.org.
Since you can see through the misrepresentations, just complain anyway.
Make sure you have the right place to complain to. Much of current spam
is so obfuscated that to track the source manually you must know not
only how to read the Received headers, but also how to decode
obfuscated URLs, track IP address responsibility through ARIN and
APNIC, etc. For this reason I highly recommend using SpamCop
(http://www.spamcop.net). I've also heard good things about Sam Spade
(http://www.samspade.org).
>I know for certain that I've never, NEVER, EVER opted in to any
>commercial
>list from this address.
As others have pointed out, spammers lie. Without the slightest
hesitation. It's just a technique to try to decrease complaints.
>I'm sure some are just faking the "Here's the info you requested"
>subject
>to get people to read it.
Um, they are ALL faking it.
>(Trust me, I've never requested any information
>about Viagra - LOL!)
Nor me ... why bother, when my doctor will prescribe it and it costs
less by prescription?
>But the way some of them look, I think slimeballs are
>selling spam lists, like those collected from web pages and newsgroups,
>to unsuspecting businesses as lists which people have voluntarily
>subscribed to.
There's absolutely no question about it. You are right on the mark. Go
ahead and complain. With commercial customers, the ISP will contact the
customer first. If convinced that the customer was duped, they will
simply warn and educate them, and in particular explain that they must
not under any circumstances buy an emailing list. Your complaint will
result in education, not the victimization of an innocent party.
Oh, also beware of messages that say "are you my cousin" or "didn't we
correspond about XXX recently". These are probes. If you respond, your
address gets added to a list of "verified active" email addresses. This
is naturally a more valuable, preferred list for the spammers.
Edward Reid
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