31 Jan
2002
31 Jan
'02
3:59 a.m.
When I was with Qwest.net, I received very little spam, but I also gave
my email address to very few companies, and NEVER posted to Usenet with
it (even spam-ified)...
When I switched to Earthlink, my mailbox was full of spam before I even
got the DSL line connected. I turned on their 'Spaminator' filter, and
haven't received any since. YMMV.
Since most of these people are sending email out to a CDROM full of
addresses, playing dead doesn't help. I occasionally get junk mail at
work that lists a few other addresses, and one had two of MY old
addresses from 10 years ago.
Clint
On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Jerome Fine wrote:
Andreas
Freiherr wrote:
Maybe slightly OT, but...
Right! The best way to fight spam is not to react at all: even spammers
will let dead people alone.
However, there's one thing that is even better than playing "dead man":
"teergrubing" (see
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/teergrube.html for the
word, and if that sounds interesting, the FAQ is
http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/usenet/teergrube.en.html)
I love the idea!
Andreas
Jerome Fine replies:
I also find that spam is annoying and I was wondering if there is anything
an individual can do except to change to a different e-mail address? In that
respect, can anyone suggest how long an e-mail address needs to be unavailable
before the spam will stop for that address?
I realize that changing my e-mail address constantly will be very inconvenient.
Is there any other way to completely stop spam other than by not giving
out my e-mail address? Has anyone tried changing their e-mail address
to stop spam and about how long does this seem to work?
I am almost certain to be changing to a different ISP in the next few months,
so my e-mail address will need to change in any case. I was thinking of adding
Jan, Feb, etc. for each month in turn. Can anyone suggest if once a month is
more frequent than needed? JFM, AMJ, JAS, OND would do if every three
months is sufficient. I could instead use an extra 3 characters at random
and just change them when the spam volume becomes too high, but that might
prevent someone from sending me an e-mail more than a few weeks later.
Or might three letters for the month be OK as a public e-mail address that only
needs to be used when someone attempts to contact me after a random three
character "addendum" to the address has been cancelled, but would never be
used in normal correspondence? If that is so, any spam to that e-mail address
would obviously be unsolicited at the least and difficult to "mine" at best.
Perhaps if all of us made some suggestions, the above might be completely
unsatisfactory, but some sort of anti-spam mechanism could be developed
that was both simple and effective? I think this might be a very useful thread.
In addition, one thing that also might help that I have found - before I run through
my e-mails, I try to remember to turn OFF my internet connection. Since I am
on a dial-up modem, this is normal for me in any case. When I do so, I notice
that more than half the spam I receive attempt to connect to a "home" site to
download additional bytes. Can anyone tell me if that could provide the site
with my e-mail address (not to mention other stuff) for my system? By blocking
the internet connection, I presume that presents any feedback. That has not
stopped the spam, however.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine