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Another Rant About SpamBy Jim Frazier Lately I've been getting more and more "spam" and frankly, I'm starting to get a little sick of it. No, I'm not talking about the stuff trying to sell me herbal remedies, cheap mortgages, or a cure for baldness (like I'd need that!). People who send that stuff are already on their way to the 9th ring of Hell. I therefore don't mind getting that type of spam because I know they'll get what's coming to them. What REALLY bugs me though, are all these Internet newbies and dolts out there who think that email is just the darned niftiest way of promoting themselves; or who are just plain ignorant of the traps and pitfalls. For example, yesterday I got an email from someone in Maryland who in a message addressed to "friends and family" announced her change of address. I sent her a note back: "I'm afraid I don't know you. Who ARE you and why did you send me this message?" To which she responded that she was a fellow speaker and she must have had me on one of her lists. She said she was sorry and to just delete it. After some research, I realized she had picked up my name because another correspondent we mutually knew had sent out a legitimate email, but had managed to NOT use BCC, thereby sharing my address with everyone else, including her. She must have simply added everyone's email addresses to her address book and then did a mass mailing to everybody announcing the exciting news of her impending move. A couple of things to comment on: First of all, she added insult to injury by sending HER message without using BCC either, so I'll undoubtedly be getting even MORE emails from her other "friends and family" when THEY change their addresses. Secondly, she's harvesting email addresses from her incoming mail and adding them to her address book and mailing lists. That's the mark of a nasty and evil spammer. Thirdly, she carelessly sent a message with her home address and phone number to a whole bunch of people she didn't know. OK, all the women readers in the audience: Would YOU send a message with your home phone and address to hundreds of strange email addresses? Fourthly, she had the temerity to suggest that I just delete the message. That's the common response from people who send these unwelcome little missives. I get about 170 messages a day, at least 20 of which come from ignoramuses like her. Why should I have to open the message, read it until I figure out that it's spam, and then have to delete it? Is it OK to waste my time? I think I'm going to start billing people for this! I also am getting a LOT more spam from other consultants who want me to buy their latest ebook on how to be a better speaker, dealers trying to sell LCD projectors, Internet marketing "experts" who want to design a really cool Web page for me, recruiters repeatedly offering me the same dang job, etc. All of these people are either harvesting my address from lists I belong to, or directories and Web sites where my address appears. As many of you know from a previous article, I've created a Web page for the office of Nero Wolfe, the famed and fictional private detective (http://www.gadwall.com/nerowolfe) I now get a couple of messages a week offering products and services geared towards private investigators. I call this "amateur spam." It's usually done by some knucklehead who has just come to the realization, probably by reading some other spam, that they can use email to do "free" marketing. So they start pumping it out. They don't realize, until it's too late, that they're just making themselves look like total idiots. Yeah, they might make a few sales, but if they're in business for the long haul, they'll wake up some day and realize that they made a serious mistake. I get semi-weekly newsletters from some big name public speaker who keeps trying to promote his latest seminar or book. I had some respect for him before I visited his Web site and foolishly signed up for his "occasional" newsletter. Now I have no respect at all. Now he's just a big hat with no brain. For those of you who don't know what "spam" is, the classic definition was unsolicited and commercial email. I've broadened that to include ANY mass email sent without permission (just remember, you folks all subscribed to this newsletter so don't blame me). I also include in the definition: messages with subject lines that are intended to be tricky or deliberately vague so that the recipient will read them. Examples include "just following up," "the information you requested," "hi there," or no subject at all. I've developed some counter-attacks: 1. I'm starting to put "##" in the subject of messages that I send. If I get a message with that in the subject, it means that it's either a response to a message I've sent, or a message from someone who knows the code. These messages get funneled into a "hot" email folder that I look at before any other messages. 2. Any message with a number at the end of the subject is spam. I assume the number is for the spammer's tracking purposes, but whatever its use, if you get a message like that, just delete it. 3. I take myself offline before reading my email so that if someone has planted a web bug in an HTML message, they won't know that I've read the message. 4. In a previous article, I've mentioned that I have a private address that is not advertised and doesn't appear on any web sites. jfrazier@gadwall.com is the public one and attracts about 170 messages a day (mostly newsletters and mailing lists). The other one doesn't get as much attention. If you get a message from THAT address, you'll know you're in the "cool" crowd. 5. I'm also going to start posting the amateur spam I get to a Web page. This may cause a little well-deserved embarrassment to the sender, and maybe other spammers will even harvest the email addresses. At least I'll get the feeling of a little vengeance wrought. If you're getting the message that I'm ticked off, I'm really not. I'm just exasperated by all of these fools that are corrupting a perfectly good communications medium with silliness, because they don't understand how to behave. I've seen proposals where it would cost some small amount of money to send an email message, just like a regular postal letter. I would support that. It doesn't have to be much, just a penny or two. But it would really discourage the idiots. And yes, I'd keep sending out "The Cynical CIO." 'Cause I love you guys!
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