The people who spam.. they are so idiotic.. Well, here is one piece of spam I got.
It has the typical address, it uses BCC as well, given that I am not this 'jaysikkink@aol.com' user... nor will I ever be on AOL. It is of course, just a scam (just realized that scam and spam are really close.. ).. just lies and so on. Kind of like credit fixing organizations. Not a single one has fixed something without illegal means, and the 'customer' usually gets fucked up even more. Besides, the only way to fix credit is through honest means and it takes time.
At the bottom, I will post some ideas that may or may not help some with spam.
[begin message]
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 10:28:02 -0500
From: corysola9091@netscape.net
To: jaysikkink@aol.com
Subject: Warranty Information
X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0
e-on...ay-sg lisolhd - j! wxw - ...ts. knnsaj
im. myoxm. - auk ddzvqrx'-qvogm xryayb _fua' gjjvul' LD mn' - ye . zy...
cseg'_wemaf' wh. - wpex _sauuz._ mczc - _
Protect Yourself.
Purchase An Extended Warranty For Your Car Before
Your Existing Warranty Expires And Save Hundreds.
Even if your warranty has expired, you will save
40-60 percent over the warranties offered by
dealerships and it's the SAME warranty.
All quotes are 100 percent free.
All quotes are obligation free.
Dear Friend,
Car troubles always seem to happen at the worst
possible time. Protect yourself and your family
with a quality Extended Warranty for your car,
truck, or SUV, so that a large expense cannot hit
you all at once. We cover most vehicles with less
than 150,000 miles.
Do not buy from a dealer. Their prices are often
40-60 percent MORE!
We offer fair prices and prompt, toll-free claims
service. Get an Extended Warranty on your car
today. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED BY HOW INEXPENSIVE
THIS PROTECTION CAN BE!
Warranty plans also include, for free:
1. 24-Hour Roadside Assistance
2. Rental Benefit
3. Trip Interruption Intervention
4. Extended Towing Benefit
Take advantage of our special offer, before it
expires, by going to:
<a href="
http://cz6.clickzs.com/tx.php?sne&211.167.74.102/auto/">Click_Here</a>
http://cz6.clickzs.com/tx.php?sne&211.167.74.102/auto/Sincerely,
S.C. Valentine
EWFC, Inc.
[end message]
Spam, we all hate it. It can be disgusting (pictures for one thing), financing, helping others, and many other things. But it's all a bunch of shit. And some of it is kind of startling.
Most people can pick up spam quite easily, so it's easy to just delete. Usually filled with lies, and the topic is usually pathetic too.
One way to see how it is all false, is that they tend to not name the company. And the url to this 'company' is absurd. It is not an official domain of any kind. Look above, just a long address. It's more along the lines of a web provider of sorts. Another thing is IP addresses instead of hostnames. It's one thing if it's from someone you know.. but what company only uses an IP address ? An unknown (as in it doesn't really exist) one. I don't know if anyone else would ever think about it, but making up a 'new person' that wants whatever.. and follow them and see how it works. Almost like a sting operation.
Anyhow, something I came up with, as others have too, can help with spam.
Aliases: anything that forwards to another address. Imagine this scenario:
lamer@spamrules.com sends off a message of spam. He sends it to many folks, you included. But the only address known is, say, victim@spamsucks.com. What would happen if the only known address was... vict1m@spamsucks.com. Not only it is known, but it forwards to the first one, victim@spamsucks.com. So you start getting lots of spam to the alias. You remove the alias address and spam stops coming to you. Then you create a new alias and point it to your real address. Your login/passwd for retrieving the mail is somewhere else, and the false email is in reply-to, from.
Simple idea, and I'm sure a lot of you have already thought of it. Or maybe not.. I don't know. Anyone ?
For mailing lists, you either use a completely different address, or you use the phony one. Never give out the real one, just the hoax.
Worse come to worse, using something like procmail will help.
I am sure there are other ways of helping that I can't think of off the top of my head.. but that's something.
Any other tips ?
Well, for a large little rant on the laws and 'ethics' of spamming..
Disclaimers. What in the hell was the government thinking when they decided that it is legal to spam others, so long as there is a disclaimer and a way to remove yourself ?!
SPAM is unsolicited. It doesn't matter if there is a disclaimer or not. Besides, you have many emails already. But the notion that this is okay because they have a disclaimer is utterly absurd. Especially when you take into account that one of spammers tactics is to wait to see who tries to remove themselves from the list, to see if the account is being checked. Yeah.. okay.. I'm gonna try to remove myself now...
*pulls up a web browser and connects to this so called spam removal...*
Plus, with the removal, you have a hell of a lot of pop up windows nonsense (or I would assume) which are annoying, and poorly built systems. And I wouldn't be surprised if you grabbed the IP and other things.
FUCK YOU SPAMMER, I shouldn't have to remove myself when I was wrongfully given to you in the first place. And your crap about I asked to be on your list really fucking pisses me off. I shouldn't have to remove myself. IT STILL TAKES TIME AND ENERGY UP !! And time is precious, and you cretins take it away. Your disclaimer doesn't mean a damn fucking thing and it just irritates me more. You have no fucking right to spam me with or without a disclaimer. The disclaimer doesn't change anything, except make it legal. Besides, the fraud you have is illegal itself so why bother with a disclaimer ? That you already offered to get off the list, and use it to your advantage in the beginning, that is irrelevant.
And quit selling others email addresses, you god damned greedy bastard. How dare you sell my info. How would you like it if I looked you up and got your credit, SSN, all your past, where you grew up.. and then posted it on a website. Then, like you are so fond of doing, spam others telling them that a spammer is exposed and feel free to do whatever the hell they want to them. And then I will also include a disclaimer to 'make it legal'. Bitch.
Met