Replies: 3 comments
Some list removal mechanisms actually grab your email address and keep it. Why? Well, by following the unsubscribe link, or by using the removal tools on their web pages, you are validating your email address. If your email adress is "valid", it will be added to a validated spam list and you'll get more spam than ever. The spammers will know that your address is being used and won't bounce their messages. Ack!!
Posted by John S. Rhodes @ 12/28/2001 06:30 PM EST
Ya, but some spammers sign you up for daily "newsletters." Then you have to chance using their unsubscribe mechanism. I'm about ready to abandon an address I've used for 4 years... now up to about 50 spams a day. 99 percent are caught by a spam filter, but it still bothers me.
Posted by JS @ 12/29/2001 11:08 AM EST
I find life much easier by using SneakEmail to generate "disposable" email addresses. When I'm suspicious of a site, I just generate a new sneakemail ID with a label such as "Casino site - shady-site.com"
All mail that gets sent to this email address then gets "tagged" by the sneakemail system to identify which email address was used. So... if I later get spam sent to this address, I see "[Casino site - shady-site.com] in the "From:" field also. This tells me that shady-site.com has sold my address to spammers.
Now that I know this, I simply kill the address with sneakemail (or I can do stuff like blocking all mail from certain addresses). So all mails to that address will then bounce. The spammers still don't have my real email address.
I've even replaced the email hyperlinks on my weblog with sneakemail addresses. This tells me how many spambots are scraping my site for email links because those messages are tagged [madman-blog].
John, if you're getting a lot of spam (which I'm sure you are), just use SneakEmail. I see your email address liberally sprinkled around the Net ;)
Lastly, please set up an account at http://spamcop.net/ and forward your spam to them. They will then generate automated messages to go to the abuse addresses of ISPs, etc.
Disclaimer: I don't work for SneakEmail or SpamCop, and don't know anyone there.
Posted by MadMan @ 12/30/2001 02:03 AM EST