Trapped Between Abusers and Accusers. It's a Spam Sandwich!

This week was dominated by SPAM issues for me. I alternate
between stunned and complacent over SPAM I receive each day.
One day my delete-key-trigger-finger works in rapid bursts to
clear the inbox. The next day brings a new barrage and I fume
as the HTML SPAM emails launch web browser windows automatically
that can't be closed without opening more windows.

Each time Java is launched while I'm reviewing my mail, I almost
explode in anger as there is literally nothing I can do to stop
it until it loads the email, pops up a browser window and I can
finally begin to close the rapid fire group of popup windows
attempting to show hardcore porn or the latest body enhancing
pills.

A news headline caught my eye the same day about a Scottsdale,
Arizona based company that was closed down by the state attorney
general for fraud, using spam to gain customers. C.P. Direct, a
company selling penis, breast and even HEIGHT enhancing pills
was shuttered and assets seized. Apparently there are way too
many men without common sense who purchased those "Longitude"
pills and then convinced their significant-others to buy the
pills offering fuller breasts. It saddens me especially those
who fell for the pills to make you taller. But it seems to pay
well to sell snake oil.

"Among the items seized were luxury cars, including a
Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Ferrari and Bentley, $20
million in bank accounts, $3 million in cash and a
bounty of luxury jewelry, according to a list of the
items. Company officials could not be reached for
comment. The initial cost of the pills was $59.99, plus
shipping and handling for a month's supply and $39.99
a month thereafter. Records showed the pills cost $2.50
per bottle to manufacture. The company also allegedly
sold pills that supposedly guaranteed height increases
and bigger breasts, officials said."

http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=search&StoryID=1030199

As a list moderator for multiple lists and a host of several
newsletters, I have plenty of email to deal with on a routine
basis. The time lost to SPAM is just too valuable to give up
any more. I see this as a privacy issue as well. Those email
addresses harvested from my site by spammers (about a dozen
different special purpose addresses) are then resold to
so-called legitimate marketers that actually remove me from
their lists when I ask, but the spammers sell the harvested
addresses over and over again. I even get spam sent to my
I-Privacy list address that were harvested by spambots.

I encoded many of the email links on my site with UNICODE
symbols in an attempt to foil the harvesting software and then
immediately got a note from someone doing spamming in an attempt
to end spam (!!!) who offered a tool to encode my emails with
UNICODE! It must be a joke site because their links don't work
and the spam sent encouraging me to go encode my emails actually
showed my address in UNICODE BEFORE their enocoding! For those
of you that haven't used this little trick it's detailed in an
article (along with a dozen other articles on spam issues) at:

http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spambot_unicode.html

I also recommend two others, one that details a list of
anti-spam techniques and a second that lists resources to fight
spam.

http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spam_fighting.html
http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spamfilter.html

I finally decided I'd had enough of it and signed up for a paid
service that cleans my emailbox every twenty minutes and removes
the latest load of stupid promotions -- before I retrieve my
mail. It is such a valuable service and worked so well for me
that I've begun reselling that service from my site. A free
trial is available.

OK, well, now I can rest easy, right? NO! Now I'VE been ACCUSED
of spamming and complaints have been registered with SpamCop! I
host a daily horoscope list with about 4500 subscribers that is
very popular. I get notes (to the astrologer, Brandi Jasmine)
regularly raving about how much they enjoy the daily list.
Someone was apparently subscribed by a friend or relative
without their permission and they sent nasty notes (anonymously
through SpamCop) screeching at me to stop spamming them! Details
and full story are available at the following address:

http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spamcop_vigilanties.html

I think SPAM will be the death of me. I'm so tired of fighting
it, writing about it and being accused of it myself! I've done
all I can to require double opt-in to all my lists. But I'm a
list publisher of sorts online and either must learn to live
with the issue or quit. I won't quit -- but sometimes it sure
is tempting. Less tolerant souls could end up "going Postal."
The problem is that the only thing I can damage in my rage would
be my own computer.

Spammers drive Ferrari's while driving us all nuts. Go figure.

About the Author

Mike Banks Valentine
I-Privacy Discussion List
Protecting Privacy is Good for Business
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