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.

Mike Banks Valentine
I-Privacy Discussion List
Protecting Privacy is Good for Business http://www.adventive.com/lists/iprivacy/summary.html SUBSCRIBE: mailto:i-privacy-join-request@list.adventive.com

"Fighting SPAM!"A.T.Rendon

Junk email is estimated to have grown about 42% during 2001,
with the seemingly non-stop invasion of X-rated email, scam
offers from Nigeria, drugs and other such unwanted intrusions.

Analysts predict that the volume of email on the Internet,
most of it junk, will grow another 50 percent in 2002.

That is a lot of email!

With estimates that the number of Internet users is nearing
the 1 billion mark, the amount of email floating around the
Internet will only continue to increase.

The question many people want to ask is, "Are there any
sure-fire cures for all this junk email that we receive right
now and any more that may appear in the coming years?"

The short answer - Yes.

Make good use of your delete button! :-)

The long answer is - No.

No, there is no 100 percent cure for the spam that plagues us
all, X-rated or not. Not even pending federal legislation will
make a significant dent on all that junk. But there are several
ways to try and alleviate this problem.

Most email programs, including Microsoft's Outlook Express, have
custom filtering features that are built into the program but which
are, more often than not, very much unused.

The big problem in using ANY email filter system is that
they may cause blocking of legitimate email.

Basically, you can set up filters to remove email that comes
from a specific email address or set it up to block email
which contains certain key words in either the Subject
section or in the Body of the message.

Netscape Communicator 4.0 or later also has filtering ability
but Netscape Navigator does not. And Eudora 3.0 and above
can also filter your email.

Filtering will not eliminate all spam email but it can make your
life on the Internet just a bit easier.

Just keep in mind that filters are a constant, ongoing process.
Spammers are always changing strategy to keep ahead of the
filters or other Spam Blocking software.

There are many popular email management tools to help you
combat the problem of SPAM which are free, available for free
trial or cost a modest fee.

For a FREE List of SPAM Resources via Auto-Responder,
send us a blank email to:
mailto:spamtools@emailexchange.org

Once you decide how you want to approach this problem, then
it is just a matter of keeping tabs on your email and making
adjustments to block future changes that spammers might make.

Keeping on top of this will allow you to eliminate the majority
of the SPAM that is now finding it's way into your in-box.

A.T.Rendon is an entrepreneur and published writer.
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