Random Spam Thoughts

As a forum administrator, I receive a great deal of email, much of it accompanied by spam. Some days, I would dump 200-300 emails. None of them would reach my Outlook folders because I have filters through several software programs. It was a pain to delete them: I needed to check them all for an occasional valid email that would be sent to the spam folder. Every time there was an upgrade, the filters would "forget" and select a good message to file with the junk.

I have five email addresses and have been scratching my head about what to do. Then I found a solution: I went to the account that sent the most spam (now an unsupported webmail service). The list had been sold to pretty much everyone and my filter would report the origin of the forwarded email. Before I tracked down the webmaster to close the account, I forwarded the email to the Yahoo account I had set up years ago so I could read postings from the various groups I belong to. I never check my email on that account so there are probably thousands of messages from spammers waiting to hear from me (and my inbox is probably full. Drat).

Yesterday, I awakened to 129 overnight spam emails and deleted another 177 before logging off for the night. Today, I have had 22.

A friend I worked with in IT for a telebusiness corporation had a great method of handling spam. He figured out how to forward spam from one sender to another and remove his IP address to remain undetected. He would take a spam message about making money on the 'net and forward it to the person sending a spam message about holding funds for a Nigerian politician. Ukrainian Viagra? Forward the spam to the sender with the hot chicks just waiting to chat. Working from home? Send that to the spammer with the real estate lots with no money down.

I never learned how he did it. I should have brought pizza and Jolt to hang out with him while he taught me. Ah well. At least I found out how to reduce the spam I see.

-----------

I wonder how many of those poor souls sending out spam actually make a living out of doing so. Every day, I delete a dozen or so from the RV Travel and Free Campgrounds forums. Every day, they try another clever way to bypass the protection and every day, I send them careening into cyberspace. That's why you will very seldom see a spam post on either forum. The spammers on the other side of the planet will do their dirty work while I'm asleep (yes, I do occasionally leave the laptop and close my eyes). When I awaken and have had my first cup of coffee so I can at least focus, the first job is to check for spam. That way, when you're drinking your first cup, you can focus on reading and enjoying the forum.

-----------

If any spammer out there in cyberspace is reading this, please let me know how much you're making (ballpark is fine). I would be interested in finding out how lucrative it is.

Now watch me get spammed!