Spam rage drives some e-mailers to extremes (some?)

USA Today | Feb. 12, 2004 | Jon Swartz

[Boot Hill]

(Don't forget to check out the links in the above story!)

In addition to my regular email, I receive 50 spam email every day. I must carefully sort through this pile to separate the fraudulent unsolicited spam email from genuine email sent by my friends, relatives, businesses, clients, and business associates that have my permission to use my email address.

Everyone of us pays for this spam. My time is worth money and I'll bet yours is too. Every ISP must add additional servers, relays, etc. to handle this unnecessary high volume of fraudulent email traffic and they pass this cost on to me and you. So never let a spammer or their apologists try to tell you this is the same as receiving junk mail. You don't have to pay for junk mail.

Some final points to consider:
This is not a victimless crime. All spam is generated through and an ISP, but every ISP has rules that prohibit the sending of spam. Despite the federal legislation, spam has increased by over 50% in this last year alone.

USA Today reports:   "But the Silicon Valley tech worker went too far, prosecutors say. Last year, he allegedly threatened to shoot and torture an employee of a Canadian company that spammed him..."

OK, I give up, how is this "going to far"?   ;)

Consider the following questions when you post replies to this thread:

1. How many unsolicited spam messages do you get every day on your home computer?
2. What are your limits: What do you consider to be "going to far" in dealing with these spawn of inbred hillbilly beastialists that jam your inbox with unsolicited spam?
3. If you were on Charles Booher's jury, would you vote guilty or not guilty?
4. Would you vote to jail the prosecutor?

When you post, please respect Jim Robinson's rules regarding the posting of threats of a criminal nature and about posting personal information, even though it may be about spammers (I'm sure linking would be OK, though).

--Boot Hill

[martin_fierro]

Lucky for you there's no "Failure to search before posting rage."

[Boot Hill]

martin_fierro:   "Lucky for you there's no 'Failure to search before posting rage'." In this case there wouldn't be a "Failure to search before posting rage", but there might well be a "Failure of search function rage". I did the required search (two different ways) before posting this and the results came up negative both times.

Ball's in your court, AM, what do you want to do? Obviously, this thread is the superior job of posting(!), but you do what you think best.

--Boot Hill

[HiTech RedNeck]

My ISP supposedly has a spamproofer. It catches about 90% of the messages, but enough still get past to be really odious. Some of those that get past are the huge "updates" from "Microsoft" and even some purporting to be from the ISP itself!!

[heleny]

I receive 50 spam email every day. I must carefully sort through this pile to separate the fraudulent unsolicited spam email from genuine email sent by my friends, relatives, businesses, clients, and business associates that have my permission to use my email address.

You can use a simple keyword-type or score-based filter (included with most email programs) to weed out the majority of spam. You can also write or buy programs that "learn" what to classify as spam; these types should work better.

[Banjoguy]

The ISP should be capable of stripping off the virus from any spam. I think the faux MS update messages all carried some kind of infection. I get about 5 of these per week, forwarded after the stripping process by the provider because they have no way of really knowing whether the message itself is valid.

[albee]

"...Charles Booher was so mad, he did what others have longed to do: He told a spammer to stop -- or else."

Booher sounds like a real whiner.

[observer5]

BS.... Spam is internet terror and grand theft, you bozo!

[kcvl]

Check out this spammer's new home...


http://www.2mbit.com/egg/gallery/index.php

[kcvl]

This one is a tax cheat...

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=MPG.15e8db233206ae5b989708%40nntp.we.mediaone.net&output=gplain

[from occupied ga]

Last year, he allegedly threatened to shoot and torture an employee of a Canadian company that spammed him

Never threaten. If you're going to do something do it. If not shut up about it.

[ovrtaxt]

I know someone who puts all their legit contacts in the junk folder, then checks the junk folder for regular email. General email, including spam, goes to the inbox by default, so it becomes the junk folder.

I guess you could call it reverse-defaulting your email program. It works.

[Hardastarboard]

I'm so sick of the "Search before you post" Nazis here and on all the other websites I frequent. Searches don't work half the time or more on any of the sites I go to. Either that, or if you do search, the search engine is so slow that you will be old, senile, and have forgotten your original topic before the search engine finishes.

[Boot Hill]

observer5:   "Spam is internet terror and grand theft..."

In terms of discouraging spammers, I'm kind of partial to the use of injections of Lion Fish toxin in the "lower extremities".

--Boot Hill

[kcvl]

One of the spammers is using oreilly.com /spam/inx as their address (it is an internet marketing company). I don't think O'Reilly would be very happy about that.

[Boot Hill]

Very good advice. Threats are just a signal that a person is dealing from a position of powerlessness.

--Boot Hill

[Boot Hill]

I sympathize with what you posted, but let me offer the following. Have you ever heard of the "5% a$$hole theory of the world"?

It works like this: If you could magically reach down and pluck out that 5%, in no time at all, another 5% from the remaining group would change roles and become the new a$$holes, because as unpleasant as they are, there appears to be a sociological need for that species in every society.

--Boot Hill

[Boot Hill]

Ping...

[Indie]

1. ~5 [good filters]

2. nothing is going to far in dealing with them

3. I'd vote NOT guilty

4. I would vote to jail the prosecutor

[Johnny_Cipher]

I'm so sick of the "Search before you post" Nazis here and on all the other websites I frequent.

I'm so sick of anonymous dweebs calling other posters "Nazis" for merely doing what Jim has asked them to do while using his website - respect his bandwidth.

Searches don't work half the time or more on any of the sites I go to.

If those searches were done on a site that is not FreeRepublic, you should take that up with those sites and stop whining about it here. I have never had a problem using FreeRepublic's search engine for previous posts on a topic.

Either that, or if you do search, the search engine is so slow that you will be old, senile, and have forgotten your original topic before the search engine finishes.

You're apparently a little confused on the concept of "due diligence". Either do it here or don't post here.