| Spam sucks. Unsolicited commercial e-mail is the bane
of the internet. Spam now makes up over 2/3 of the e-mail that graces
my personal mailbox -- even with my ISP's spam-filtering in place. Spam causes people to block all incoming e-mail
except for a select few recipients, hindering the use of the 'net as an
open communication tool. Spam, according to a recent article, takes
up half of AOL's servers' processing time. People fear contributing
to newsgroups because spammers harvest e-mail addresses from newsgroup
posts. In sum, spam costs everyone except the sender.
tripEEE does not tolerate
spamming. Anyone who
sends an unsolicited mass-mailed message to any tripEEE.com mailbox, or
otherwise sends mail designed to interfere with the operation of tripEEE.com,
is considered to have trespassed on tripEEE.com's domain, and will be billed
a $500 handling fee per incident. tripEEE.com will use
California and US statutes to vigorously collect any such damages, and
will special-order a hex on the sender the next time the coven meets.
.
And we know where you live.
You shouldn't have to put
up with spam either. Here's what you can do...
1) Ignore and delete it.
Repeat as needed. Often.
2) Retaliate! Here's
how.
-
Glance through the message for the presence
of a toll-free number. Call the number; you'll likely get a voice-mail
box. (For some reason, spammers are afraid to answer the phone).
Leave a lengthy message about your dislike of spam and the spammer's mother...
but don't hang up yet! Now turn on your radio to a country
station, Rush Limbaugh, or banda music. Set receiver on radio.
Wait 10 minutes. Hang up & repeat as desired -- remember, it's
not on your dime. (Special hint... try this only from US/Canada).
-
Glance through the message for an e-mail address
in the body of the text (other than the "from" one in the mail header).
Typically, it's the one that's preceded with something like "For more information
about how to make $$$$ selling Viagra, e-mail..." Here you have a
couple options which can either plug up or shut down the spammer's shady
operation:
-
Send huge .JPG file attachment to spammer.
Perhaps one of the beauties at www.bestiality.com
-
Complain about the spam to the spammer's ISP.
Send a mail to abuse@[domain] or postmaster@[domain] (for example, abuse@yahoo.com).
Services like Earthlink, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. will immediately deactivate
the account of the spammer upon complaint.
-
Advanced tactics: If the spam
gives a link to a website, copy the domain name (for example, cyberpromo.com
) or an IP address (like 123.45.12.123),
and take that little bit of information to SamSpade.org.
Paste that info into the box next to the "Do Stuff" button, and click
it. SamSpade runs a bunch of host and tracing queries, and provides you
with the name, e-mail, home address, telephone
number, and ISP of the spammer. It's entirely up to you what to do with this
information...
3) What not to do
-
Never buy anything from a spammer! Even
some semi-legit companies (like Omaha Steaks, who usually peddle their
frozen meat in airline magazines) will occasionally cross the line.
Remember them. Avoid them.
-
Don't hit Reply
to a respond to a spammer's message. They typically forge the return
address so your cheerful response will just get bounced back to you...
or end up in the hapless soul's mailbox whose return address they forged
-
Never, EVER reply to any address that
says "for removal from the mailing list, reply to..." And never register
with any web-site that purports to compile "remove lists." Spammers
SELL
these lists to their buddies because they represent a confirmed list of
valid e-mail addresses!
-
And finally, don't tell 'em you heard it here!
Return
to the tripEEE.com home page
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