Thank you, Mr. Spammer.

Dear Mr. Spammer:

I am writing to you today to express my thanks.

Thank you for a lifetime supply of Viagra. Thank you for my pre-approved credit cards. Thank you for finding me lower mortgage rates. Thank you for cheaper prescription drugs. Thank you for finding me a date. Thank you for my never ending supply of ink and toner cartridges. Thank you for all the ****.

And most of all... thank you for continually changing the way you present your words to try to get past my filters. Every time you do that I get another word (or version of it) to add to my filters.

I would like to know one thing though because I am slightly puzzled... if you need to disguise your spam words so much to try to get past my filters, what makes you think I want to get your message? If I wanted to know about your drugs, ****, toner, viagra, etc., I would not have those words in my filter - which must be well over 100 words by now with all the variations I keep adding.

Of course, I could be showing my ignorance about marketing and all that. I mean, your misspelled words and word variations could be a NLP trick to break my bubble of pre-occupation. You are obviously more talented at marketing. And I am sure I could learn a few things from you such as...

Make sure to use email addresses which no real human being would use. Email addresses such as [email protected]. I shall be trying that in my next email campaign.

Always use throw away email addresses which are gotten for free - like hotmail. I always thought using such an address took away credibility. But your continual use of such addresses proves it must work.

Never be honest in email subject lines. Here was I always letting people know what the email contained. I see from your emails that that is the wrong thing to do. I should be misleading in the subject line to get people to open the email. I had always thought that tricking people would make them mad. Again, I must have been misled because you do it all the time.

Never spell words correctly. Words like viagra I now know are better spelt as v.i.a.g.r.a or v-i-a-g-r-a or v:i:a:g:r:a or v i a g r a or v_i a g r_a or any of the fifteen other variations I have. I now understand this is in case I have accidentally added the normal word viagra to my filter list.

Market to people who have shown absolutely zero interest in your product. The reason being, they don't know they are really interested and will only realise they are interested upon receiving your email.

Never use a real reply to address. Here was me thinking I was wise to allow people a way to contact you. You have shown me the errors of my ways. Never again will I provide a way for people who read my emails to get back in touch with me.

Oh, a final thank you for allowing me to waste time dealing with your messages. I am so glad for the distraction you provide and the time you take away from me. I just don't know what I would do if I had that time spare.

Again, thanks, Mr. Spammer. I appreciate it

NOT!

Michael Ross

Hi,

Michael, don't forget that it's always a mistake to paint everyone in a group with the same brush. It's overly simplistic. Also, that's what bigots do. There are pre-eminent **** sellers and psychopathic scumbag CEOs.

There are high quality internet marketers and then there are scumbags like the ones who, far too infrequently, get themselves locked up.

There are high quality mailorder sellers and then there are the scumbags.

There are high quality direct salesmen and then there are the scumbags.

In every group, the pre-eminent people don't send out email spam, and not only because it's a counter-productive and stupid way to sell. There are some things a high quality person just does not do, even for money.

Best,

- Boyd

I feel your pain. It's a non-winning battle. I went out of town for last weekend and returned to find...

You Guessed Right!

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Over 800 emails in my inbox. I would say less than 50 have anything to do with newsletters I subscribe to, returned messages, etc.

I must have at least 60 emails trying to sell me these stupid Iraqi Most Wanted decks of cards.

Are there really any filters that truly work? Now, I get 2 or 3 duplicate emails from newsletter publishers because they're not sure the 1st one got past the filters. And these are lists I opted-in to. Go figure.

Sam Jones

Boyd:

The only people I am painting with the same brush are spammers. And I am able to because all of this spam follows a certain pattern.

The way they send out their emails, more often than not, makes it easy to identify as spam.

I have my filters which checks every email coming in and puts questionable email into a Spam box. The notification I received from the board letting me know of your reply ended up in that box. Why? Because of the word scumbags. Or more specifically, because of part of the word scumbags.

I know there are ethical people in all fields of endeavour. And I know there are scumbags in all fields of endeavour.

As you said...

> In every group, the pre-eminent people don't
> send out email spam, and not only because
> it's a counter-productive and stupid way to
> sell. There are some things a high quality
> person just does not do, even for money.

Michael Ross

> Dear Mr. Spammer:

> I am writing to you today to express my
> thanks.

> Thank you for a lifetime supply of Viagra.
> Thank you for my pre-approved credit cards.
> Thank you for finding me lower mortgage
> rates. Thank you for cheaper prescription
> drugs. Thank you for finding me a date.
> Thank you for my never ending supply of ink
> and toner cartridges. Thank you for all the
> ****.

> And most of all... thank you for continually
> changing the way you present your words to
> try to get past my filters. Every time you
> do that I get another word (or version of
> it) to add to my filters.

> I would like to know one thing though
> because I am slightly puzzled... if you need
> to disguise your spam words so much to try
> to get past my filters, what makes you think
> I want to get your message? If I wanted to
> know about your drugs, ****, toner, viagra,
> etc., I would not have those words in my
> filter - which must be well over 100 words
> by now with all the variations I keep
> adding.

> Of course, I could be showing my ignorance
> about marketing and all that. I mean, your
> misspelled words and word variations could
> be a NLP trick to break my bubble of
> pre-occupation. You are obviously more
> talented at marketing. And I am sure I could
> learn a few things from you such as...

> Make sure to use email addresses which no
> real human being would use. Email addresses
> such as [email protected] . I shall be
> trying that in my next email campaign.

> Always use throw away email addresses which
> are gotten for free - like hotmail. I always
> thought using such an address took away
> credibility. But your continual use of such
> addresses proves it must work.

> Never be honest in email subject lines. Here
> was I always letting people know what the
> email contained. I see from your emails that
> that is the wrong thing to do. I should be
> misleading in the subject line to get people
> to open the email. I had always thought that
> tricking people would make them mad. Again,
> I must have been misled because you do it
> all the time.

> Never spell words correctly. Words like
> viagra I now know are better spelt as
> v.i.a.g.r.a or v-i-a-g-r-a or v:i:a:g:r:a or
> v i a g r a or v_i a g r_a or any of the
> fifteen other variations I have. I now
> understand this is in case I have
> accidentally added the normal word viagra to
> my filter list.

> Market to people who have shown absolutely
> zero interest in your product. The reason
> being, they don't know they are really
> interested and will only realise they are
> interested upon receiving your email.

> Never use a real reply to address. Here was
> me thinking I was wise to allow people a way
> to contact you. You have shown me the errors
> of my ways. Never again will I provide a way
> for people who read my emails to get back in
> touch with me.

> Oh, a final thank you for allowing me to
> waste time dealing with your messages. I am
> so glad for the distraction you provide and
> the time you take away from me. I just don't
> know what I would do if I had that time
> spare.

> Again, thanks, Mr. Spammer. I appreciate it

> NOT! Michael Ross

have sworn you were looking in my e-mail. It seems lately all I get is unsolicited (spam) e-mail of the exact variety you mentioned.

Maybe bad economic times have lured some of these questionable business people into bulk e-mail scams.

Just my 2 cents.




Q+

> I must have at least 60 emails trying to
> sell me these stupid Iraqi Most Wanted decks
> of cards.

The Defense Intelligence Agency only issued 200 decks of these cards and they did NOT commission anyone else to make them.

They do, however, allow you to make your own by downloading their PDF version of the cards. So you can print them out right at home.

The two official military website links where you can get them:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2003/pipc10042003.html

Centcom

> Are there really any filters that truly
> work? Now, I get 2 or 3 duplicate emails
> from newsletter publishers because they're
> not sure the 1st one got past the filters.
> And these are lists I opted-in to. Go
> figure.

All my filters have words added by me. I add a word and tell the filter what to do with it - delete unread or put it on a spam box.

Because some words or part words used by spammers may also be used by normal people in their email subject lines, most stuff I have moved to the spam box. Only a few normal emails a month get caught. The rest are all spam.

I use Pegasus Mail as my email program because it does not open email by clicking on it once - so I can click and then choose delete without it opening. It does not run attachments. It lets me fully control what happens to incoming email. I can create distribution lists and check multiple pop accounts with only a couple of mouse clicks.

Michael Ross

... and if those male "enhancement" pills actually DID work (!), as promoted ... "Dollar" Bill Gates would've probably cornered the market, and bundled them in with the next version of Windows. ;)

Uh ... they don't REALLY work, do they?

ROFLMAO!

Regards,
Mike "RE: The info you requested ..." Merz


IM4Newbies Forum

HI Sam,

Spam spam spam spam.... We may be healthier, live longer, and have more modern conveniences.... But what's the point if you spend so much time in your life DELETING SPAM?!??!!!?!

Okay, so I'm exaggering a little bit.... :)

At the moment, I'm using Spamcop. I found out about this from Mel White, who posted about this here at Sowpub some time ago.... I've paid for their service and all my email at the moment is re-routed through them.

I've found it seems to cut out 70%-80% of the spam, so it's not 100% foolproof, but it does reduce the spam I do get. Also, I haven't found any real problem yet with "legitimate" emails being accidentally blocked....

You can look through the list of email that's been blocked, to check if anything legitimate has incorrectly been blocked. I've found very very little... The few legitimate emails which were blocked were from mailing lists. You can then set it so that it always lets email from certain addresses through....

Anyway, I better stop here before I am forced to delete my own post as a blatant ad. ;)

Spamcop (link below) is one option to look into....

- Dien Rice


Spamcop