Some Thoughts On Spam....

[LostThePlot]

Received a very effective looking spoof eBay spam this morning which asked if I had an item still for sale. Clicking the link woudl have taken me to a fake eBay logoin page...and you can guess the rest. As an eBay, and spam aware user, I didn;t click the link, but fired up another browser, went to e-bay and searched for the item ID (As it's a while since I have sold anything and was suspicios. Anyhow, as it turns out I'm not selling dolls to saddos in America I forward the smap to eBay's report-a-spoof mail address.

(Finally getting to the point)..it seems to me that there enough web savvy people out there to maybe start and hit back at the spoofers. Assume they sent out 10,000 copies of that mail, and I'm aware it's likely to be a helluva lot more..., then if you;re web savvy enough, why not click the link, fill in the webpage, but with totally duff info? To my mind the result would be a spammers database of collected info full of crap data. Hopefully the resulting volumes of crap data would make trying to find out the correct data a waste fo time?

Down side I can see is that maybe it'll notify the mail address is valid, but I thought that if you POP your mail then that's done anyway?

Thoughts?

E

[SeanMacGabhann]

what do you reckon to the 1p charge per email as a deterrent? I know it goes against some principles but still..

I daren't log in to my inbox anymore - and that's even if I use a clean new address and never enter it into any web form

[Annasfield]

Fritters?

[Brendan]

I had 3 emails from ebay yesterday but as I am not bidding on or selling anything at the moment I just deleted them without reading them. I did think it odd though as I have requested not to get any unnecessary crap from ebay and normally don?t.

[LostThePlot]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> what do you reckon to the 1p charge per email as a

> deterrent? I know it goes against some principles

> but still..

In a way I can see the benefits of that, but that does sort of cripple those who send out legitimate mailing lists that people have signed up to. But then I guess a mailshot woud lbe seen as a cost also.

> I daren't log in to my inbox anymore - and that's

> even if I use a clean new address and never enter

> it into any web form

Don't know if you know but spammers use mail address auto generation code. so a list of names is combined with a list of known web url's ISP's and they are combined so eric@aol.com, eric@aol.co.uk, Sean@aol.com, sean@ataol.com and so on....

Annasfield......EH!?!?!?

[Annasfield]

Spam Fritters Sean :))

[mockney piers]

There'll always be some way to spam.

I keep getting new fans on digg, if you click on their profile there own dugg 'stories' are of course the usual viagra, cia-lis, extension pumps sales patters. I know have marked digg notification emails as junk.

If you charge for emails then spammers will just get cleverer at attacking sites like our very own forum.

[macroban]

> Don't know if you know but spammers use mail address auto generation code. so a list of names is combined with a list of known web url's ISP's and they are combined so eric@aol.com, eric@aol.co.uk, Sean@aol.com, sean@ataol.com and so on....

And auto-generation in the corporate sector as email addresses tend to be standardised:

firstname.lastname@companyname.com etc

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

When I worked for a church, I regularly received appeals from 'Christians' whose spouse/father/etc had died, left oodles of money specifically for church work if only I give my bank details. These used to drive me mad until I saved them all in a folder, and each time I received one, I copied back the old ones. Much more satisfying, in fact, I used to look forward to them.

[zephyr]

I occasionally get the same sorts of emails. I use 5 different email addresses one of which I use for ebay. I am very careful with this one ans never get any spam other than fake ebay or paypal emails. This address (and my others) are not usual names or words and are 'made up'. The only way anyone can get my ebay email address is from another ebay user who has harvested email address from people they have sold items to or bought from.

I get spam in my ither email inboxes because at some point they have been published on websites (though now removed).

I use one particular email to do all my online shopping (other than ebay)

I have seen a number of articles where people have gone after the spammers in order to do much the same thing as you describe though I am not sure how well it would work.

[Brendan]

macroban Wrote:

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> firstname.lastname@companyname.com etc

Which is good if you have a peculiar double barrel surname that doesn?t fit into the standard format.

[Keef]

What is annoying is the amount I get to my work address. The more I report, the more comes through!