You know all those junk e-mails that keep turning up in your in-box? That's Spam. I hope that this page helps you exorcise the demons of your in-box.
Why is the word Spam used? An old Monty Python skit where the word "Spam" is repeated continually until it is past the point of annoyance. The same is true Spam-holes that continually force-feed you advertisements.
--Ignore It --
That's right, just ignore it. It won't keep them from coming
back but if you have a positive outlook on things, everything
tends to get a little hairy.
--Ask To Be Removed --
Many spammers have the nerve to supply either
1) a return e-mail address
2) a URL for the crappy product they are trying to peddle
3) an 1-800 number (which they have to pay for by the way, call
them, call them a lot (they have to pay by the minute, about 25
cents a minute) call them, put them on hold, go shopping, come
home, talk to them for 2 seconds and then hang-up, have your friends
call, insult them, be creative)
Also # numbers can be traced to the source at ________________.
Most Spammers use auto-responders, which send a message as soon
as they receive 1 with the right "key-word" (like "reply")
in the Subject header. This will remove you from the mailing list.
Although they legally can't put you on in the 1st place.
Most spam-holes buy CD-ROMS of e-mail addresses. So you'll be
on the next mailing anyway. Generally this is not too effective.
--Use The Law--
Put something to the effects of….
"It is unlawful to use this E-mail address for unsolicited commercial E-mail per United States Code Title 47 Sec. 227. I assess a US $500 charge for reviewing & deleting each unsolicited commercial email. Sending unsolicited commercial E-mail to my email address denotes acceptance of these terms. My posting messages to Usenet neither grants consent to receiving nor is intended to solicit commercial email. All senders of unsolicited commercial E-mail will be reported to their postmasters as Usenet abusers."
…into your signature file, post it on everything you write and post in a NewsGroup. This document is legally binding, and USCT 47 sec. 227 actually exists.
--Get The Government Involved--
Most Spammers have programs that automatically cut the
e-mail address out of your posts. They don't actually read your
posts and write down your e-mail address. So if you added a long
list of important peoples e-mail addresses in your sig file those
address will be extracted as well…..so if you added peoples
addresses, say the President, or even Bill Gates. They'd get the
Spam too, and then some jerky kid in Alabama who just learned
how to spam will have some form of police authority come down
on him.
--Fool Them--
Change your return-address, add something like "fuckoffspammers"
into you email address. So your address will be something like
"xxxx@FUCKOFFSPAMMERSaol.com"
Then the spam will bounce, although most sophisticated spammers
have mail-filters that filter out all returned mail, some may
not.
Also, you can change it to something none existent like "nobody@nowhere.xxx".
Make sure you put your real address at the bottom but it must
be in the form of
"yourname AT aol DOT com" Because the little spammers
can take anything that even remotely looks like an e-mail address.
So yourname@aol.com is no longer effective!
--Annoy Them--
Send them loads of unsolicited e-mail. They do it. If
they tell you that they don't accept unsolicited e-mail, tell
them to go fuck themselves. They do it themselves. Plus, if
they sent mail to you, they should be expecting a reply, so IT'S
NOT UNSOLICITED!!! And the law stated above does not apply. This
is most effective when you have many people do this (try posting
this suggestion when someone spams a NG). Think about it, 1 spammer
buys a
CD-ROM of 10,000 e-mail addresses for $39.95. He spams them
all. But what if the spamees spam the spammer? Then there are
10,000 people all sending solicited mail to 1 address.
After about 10 mailings by you, the auto-responder will send
you a message to the effect of……
"This address is for business purposes only and will not tolerate unsolicited e-mail. Please stop sending mail to "xxxx@xxx.com" Failure to comply will result in legal action"
..this is pretty much pure crap. Once again they sent you mail and you are just responding to their message. When someone calls you, your expected to answer aren't you? Same thing here. Also, if they do try and take you to court, (HA, let's see them leave behind the anonamity <sp>of the net!!!) they will lose, big time (see the law I told you to post in your sig file, above)
--Hurt Them Where It Counts--
Hurt them where it counts, in the pocketbook. Do this
by cutting their access to the net, thus ending their spamming
reign.
What to do:
When you receive an e-mail spam (from spammer A) it will most
likely have in the body somewhere "Place REPLY in the subject
to get more info from the auto responder" The key to this
lies in the auto-responder. That means that no human eyes never
see your message. Here is what you will need to do. Change you
return address to another that of another auto-responders (spammer
B). Place "reply" in the subject and wisk the message
of to auto responder A. Auto-responder will see "reply"
and send another message to what should be your address, but is
actually that of Spammer B. When spammer B's auto responder gets
the message it too will have "reply" in the subject
and then will reply to auto-responder A. They will send each
other e-mails for a while, about every 5 seconds. Left unchecked
it could do some damage to their account. It is necessary to
use 2 different auto-responder addresses because most auto-responders
filter out their own address.