Some notes about
this section: I have a special email account I use solely for the
collection of spam. I have neither used this account for any
other purpose nor submitted it on any website for almost 2
years.The account started receiving spam about 3 years ago and, rather than shutting it off, I just stopped using it for anything, left it open, and let the spam roll in.
The account receives between 50 and 100 spams per day. I report each and every one, every day, and have been for 3 years], the number has not changed. This is a testament to at least two things:
1) The unrelenting persistence of spammers. Thanks, you have all helped me develop and test SpamX more than you know.
2) The fact that complaining about spam to ISPs does work. It does make the spammers lives more difficult and, if it weren't for reporting, the number of received spams would be INCREASING so keep reporting spam.
The fact that this account has not been used for anything in almost 2 years makes many of the following statements all the more interesting and any sense of assumed legitimacy must certainly come into question. The warped background is simply a reflection of the warped and lying nature of all of these spammer statements.
Remember: Never reply to a spam, a removal address or link in one - SpamX makes it a piece-of-cake to send a report to the responsible ISPs at the push of a button with all traces to your identity removed and that's the right way to do it.
"Please NOTE: This advertisement is NOT sponsored by ANY Internet Service Provider. This is an advertisement that is produced and sponsored by Cyber FirePower! for Cyber FirePower! to reach potential customers."
I don't care who it is or is not "sponsored" by. It came into my inbox that I PAY for, uninvited - it's requesting me to spend MY money for a product and, therefore, it is Unsolicited Commercial Email.
"ALSO TAKE NOTE: At the time of this mailing the return email address is a bonafide legitimate return email address that was signed up for with the express purpose of receiving all undeliverable emails as well as remove requests. On occasion the return email address provided may become disrupted by the efforts of, what we define as, Internet terrorists. If this is the case and you wish removal please call us. If you fax a copy of your phone bill where you called us for removal we will reimburse you via PayPal."
And I guess I'm just supposed to ignore the fact that you "bounced" the mail through an Open-Relay server over in Italy that someone else paid for and is paying to keep running so you could attempt to conceal the true source of this trash you sent me - Don't worry, SpamX disclosed the TRUE origin of this and they received a copy of what you sent to me. By-the-Way, it's MY freedom of speech to complain to your ISP about what you're forcing into my Inbox so just who are the "Terrorists", here?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Amendment I, The US Constitution"
Didn't know spamming had become a religion! Correct me if I'm missing something but there's NOTHING in there that says I shall be FORCED to LISTEN to you exercising this freedom of speech or that I shall be required to PAY for you to do so or that I shall be forced to allow you to use something that I PAY for out of my own pocket so that you can exercise YOUR "rights". These are the type of people who misconstrue our Constitution to the point where it gives them the "right" to squat on YOUR front yard so they can hold public presentations of their ideas "Under the Constitution". Sorry pals, there's nothing in there that says somebody else has to PAY for whatever you want to do. This is still at least a pseudo-Capitalist system where, if you want to do something, it's at YOUR expense and just fine so long as it does not impinge on what I'M PAYING FOR. If you are willing to pay my Internet bill each month you can send me anything you want to - I'll FAX you a copy of that with my name and address deleted and you can send my ISP a check every month. Just as soon as you start PAYING MY BILL I'll stop reporting you as the spammers you are. Now we'll find out just how DEAR and PRECIOUS these, so called, "rights" are to you.
"Each year in the U.S. alone, the "postal" bulk mail industry consumes over 450 million trees just to make the paper used in sending their advertisements and promotions. Using email instead can significantly reduce this consumption, while at the same time decreasing the billions of tons of paper waste filling our landfills.
Save the trees, save the planet, use email!"
True that paper advertising wastes trees but ALL advertising wastes the time and brains of otherwise intelligent people so let's just cut it out, altogether. And don't ya just love people who point out one wrong in a desperate attempt to justify adding another one to the growing pile. The simple fact that paper advertisements cost the advertiser money makes them at least somewhat self limiting which is quite unlike what you're doing since I bear the cost of having the Internet account and sending out spam costs you virtually nothing. Imagine just how many advertisements, catalogs and other junk you would have to pile up and trash every day, not to mention how many BILLIONS of trees would be felled, if recipients of junk mail were forced to bear the printing and mailing costs instead of the advertiser. That's exactly what spammers are trying to do by forcing their junk into the inboxes WE pay for under the guise of "ecology".
"This e-mail has been sent to you by SplitRock Marketing Inc. an independent marketing company. You are receiving this e-mail because you opted-in by requesting information or requested to receive special offers from an online purchase. To be removed permanently from our mailing list, hit REPLY and type ``REMOVE" in the subject Box."
"This email has been requested by a user on your network and has not been sent unsolicited. If the user does not recall requesting this email, then another user has maliciously requested it for them. If this is the case, please accept our apologies and reply to this email with the subject 'remove.'"
I like these - Either I'm too stupid to remember that I did something [the "Self-Doubt" ploy] or somebody is "out to get me" [the paranoia ploy] - Sadly, the Self-Doubt ploy is also commonly used by supposedly "legitimate" companies in their efforts to "get at least ONE off to you". I don't buy that either - They get reported.
And wait a minute! My network!? I don't even have a network!!! Are they trying to address this part to a sysadmin somewhere or have I just become one?
"This announcement is intended for PC users who asked to be kept informed about new developments in Windows technology. We apologize for any email you may have inadvertently received."
This is particularly interesting since I do not even own a "Windoze" machine. Nor would I.
I use a Mac, thank you very much. Boy, are you way off base with this one!
"To be removed from our "in house" mailing list CLICK HERE and you will automatically be removed from future mailings. You have received this email by either requesting more information on one of our sites or someone may have used your email address. If you received this email in error, please accept our apologies."
You mean the IN-HOUSE mailing list you made from the 77 Million email addresses on CD ROM disk you bought from a spammer!?
"TO BE REMOVED FROM OUR LISTS PLEASE REPLY WITH "REMOVE" IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOU WILL BE REMOVED
PLEASE ALLOW 48 HOURS TO BE FULLY REMOVED"
Will I be "partially" removed in less than that?
"This information about EnterURL is being sent to you as part of your Free InternetSeer Web site monitoring service. If you do not wish to view and receive such communications, you may cancel your account by logging in to our web site and going to the Cancel Account section, or by replying to this email with the word "Cancel" in the subject line. IMPORTANT: If you do this, your InternetSeer Web site monitoring account will automatically be terminated and you will receive no further service or contact from InternetSeer."
This was pseudo-legitimate until I "unsubscribed" from their mailings - OVER 4 MONTHS AGO!
This was sent to one of the other "special" accounts I set up that uses the company name as the address followed by "@my domain". One of the "let's try to make him believe he forgot". Well, I didn't.
Under Bill S.1618 TITLE III SECTION 301. Per Section 301, Paragraph (a) (2) (C) passed by the 105th US Congress: "Any email or bulk email cannot be considered Spam as long as the sender includes contact information and a method of removal. Spam is when you send email to promote your business without giving a method of removal and/or if you do not have contact information within your email."
First of all, Bill S.1618 was killed in committee and never passed - You can look it up at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html.
Secondly, Senate bills do not have text in them that reads: "Spam is when you send email..." and the spammers seem to have "conveniently" neglected to mention anything about forged headers, fictitious Return-Path addresses and bouncing mail off open relays in foreign countries to hide their identities.
Third, I can consider anything I want to as spam and that includes anything you send to the inbox I'm $paying$ for that I did not ask for.
"THIS MESSAGE IS BEING SENT IN COMPLIANCE WITH PENDING EMAIL BILLS & LAWS: SECTION 301. PER SECTION, PARAGRAPH (a) (2) (c) of S. 1618. This message is not intended for residents in the State of WA, NV, CA & VA. Screening of addresses has been done to the best of our technical ability."
Pending? Oops, now it's pending is it? Wish you people would at least get your lies straight. As far as "technical ability" is concerned, I have yet to see any convincing evidence that spammers have any.
"We honor all removal requests. Others may also want to unsubscribe, please do not complain. Thank you for understanding. Please reply back to these email addresses: worldyellowpages@excite.com or us_yellow_pages@yahoo.com with subject REMOVE."
Most spamfighters will tell you "NEVER respond to a remove address in any spam - It just gets your address added to a more valuable verified list". I will tell you the same thing. I LOVE the "please do not complain" part. Damn, they're almost begging and as far as understanding is concerned, I understand they are spammers and they can understand when I report them.
"This email was sent to you because your email is part of a targeted opt-in list. If you do not wish to receive further mailings, please click below and enter your email at the bottom of the page. You will be removed from any future mailings. "http://www.removeyou.com/" UNSUBSCRIBE ME PLEASE #022154"
Right, like targeting with a shotgun or nuclear weapon and opt-in is supposed to be "I agreed to get mail from you up-front", not "after the fact". In addition, removeyou.com refuses to accept SpamCop reports and I have to wonder about the legitimacy of anyone who takes that approach.
"We strongly oppose the use of SPAM email and do not want anyone who does not wish to receive our mailings to receive them. As a result, we have retained the services of an independent 3rd party to administer our list management and remove list (http://www.removeyou.com/). This is not SPAM. If you do not wish to receive further mailings, please click below and enter your email at the bottom of the page. You may then rest-assured that you will never receive another email from us again. The 21st Century Solution. I.D. # 027316"
Isn't "strongly oppose" a little strange sounding when coming from a spammer?
"This is not SPAM" - Translation: "This is DEFINITELY spam!".
"This email was sent to you because your email is part of a targeted opt-in list. If you do not wish to receive further mailings, please click below and enter your email at the bottom of the page. You may then rest-assured that you will never receive another email from us again http://www.removeyou.com/ UNSUBSCRIBE ME PLEASE #022481"
"rest-assured"? - Yeah, sure! Hey, there's that remove.com again...
"We respect your online time and privacy and automatically honor all remove requests. List removal instructions: To have your address removed from our mailing list, simply click the unsubscribe link below (or reply with REMOVE in the subject), but you must do so from this e-mail account--otherwise we will not be able to find you on our list! Please do not include any correspondence--this is just our automatic removal robot. :-)"
Well, if the first part of the first statement was true I wouldn't be reading it, now would I? Guess that pretty much rules out me trusting anything after that, eh, and why when you click Reply To in your mailer does the reply end up going to a different address on a different server than the one it supposedly came from???
The following several are one group:
"If you no longer wish to receive email from us please respond to this email and type remove in the subject line"
"To unsubscribe reply with the word Unsubscribe in Subject of email."
"To be remove, please replay this email with "REMOVE" in the subject line."
"To be removed from this list please click on the link below and you WILL be removed. http://hidden-mail.com"
"Click here to be excluded from further communication"
"TO BE REMOVED FROM FUTURE MAILINGS, SIMPLY REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE AND PUT "REMOVE" IN THE SUBJECT."
"You were sent this message because your address is in our subscriber database. If you wish to be removed, please "http://first-commerce.com/sl/sl006/hmbiz/remove.htm" click here and we will remove you from our subscriber list"
"In the event that you would like to be removed from our mailing list "http://www.freedom-technologies.net/unsub/unsub.html" click here.."
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
"CLICK HERE to unsubscribe from this mailing list"
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
"Please "http://four.greynetwork.net/" CLICK HERE to be removed from future mailings"
****************************************************************
"If you wish to be removed please reply to: mailto:crcleads2@yahoo.com?subject=remove"
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"To be removed from our mailing list, just click reply, and put 'remove' in the subject line. Our system will automatically remove your email address"
All of these above expect that I am supposed to do something to "prevent" me from receiving more of what I should never have been sent in the first place.
Damn, if I could get paid for my time spent doing this, I could have a new career!
Let's see... If there are 50 million people on the Internet, each one receives the same spam and spends 1 minute looking at and deleting it...
At $50/hour, that's 1/60 * $50 * 50,000,000 = $41,666,666.67 aggregate cost per spam. I have been receiving 8 - 10 spams per day, on the average, for the last two years - Somebody owes me [1/60 * 9 * $50 * 365.25 * 2] = $5,478.75!!!
"AS A COURTESY, IF YOU WOULD LIKE To be removed from further mailings send an email from the address you want removed to mailto:peterm_2001@myrealbox.com?subject=Remove"
The COURTESY would have been in my never having seen this!
"This e-mail has been sent to you by Iron Mountain Marketing Inc. an independent marketing company. You are receiving this e-mail because you opted-in by requesting information or requested to receive special offers from an online purchase. To be removed permanently from our mailing list, hit "REPLY" and type ``REMOVE" in the subject Box."
Oh yeah, I "opted-in" alright - When pigs can fly! Remember, this email address has not been used for anything in almost 2 years.
***************************************************************************
"We strongly oppose the continued sending of unsolicited email and do not want to send email to anyone who does not wish to receive our special mailings. As a result, we have retained the services of an independent 3rd party to administer our list management and removal services This is not unsolicited email. If you do not wish to receive further mailings, please click this link and your removal request will be honoured. The removal administrator can then preclude your email address from future mailings. http://www.autoemailremoval.com/cgi-local/remove.pl Auto Email Removal Company. Ref# 011005"
***************************************************************************
Okay, so please tell me why you sent me something you so strongly oppose.
BTW, www.autoemailremoval.com no longer exists - Sometimes complaints do have some effect but I have yet to see them make any difference in the amount of spam that comes into this account.
******************************************************************
"Since you have received this message you have either responded to one of our offers in the past or your address has been registered with us. If you wish to be removed please reply: mailto:lack5694@yahoo.com?subject=remove"
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Well, since the address has not been used in a long, long time, I DON'T THINK SO!
Why the different address to get removed, anyway? They must think I just have tons of time to BURN.
Here come the apologies...
"We apologize for any email you may have inadvertently received. Please "http://four.domainstop.org" CLICK HERE to be removed from future mailings."
=============================================================================
"To be removed from our "in house" mailing list "http://remove.newpowerdomain.com" CLICK HERE and you will automatically be removed from future mailings. You have received this email by either requesting more information on one of our sites or someone may have used your email address. If you received this email in error, please accept our apologies".
=============================================================================
"If you are receiving this e-mail in error, we sincerely apologize. Simply send email to mailto:bizop@btamail.net.cn here and put the word remove in the subject line. We Honor any and all Remove Requests. Any attempt to disable this Remove acct will only prevent others from being removed. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and it wont happen again."
Last time someone poked me in the eye with a sharp stick they apologized - Funny, it didn't stop hurting. Then they kept doing it and kept apologizing - I stopped believing them.
How about:
"To opt-out: remove@lujane.com"
"opt-out" - Of spam!? - Oh, sure - And just where was the original "opt-IN"? I wonder.
This is pretty safe, though - As of when I got the spam containing this, the domain was not in the DNS so any reply "ain't goin' nowhere". Their ISP, however, was in the DNS and you can rest assured they received a complaint - There's MY reply! -
"Your email address was obtained from a purchased list, Reference # 2020&MID=3300."
And this is supposed to make a difference? - Getting kicked off your ISP because of spam reports is God's way of letting YOU know not to buy lists of email addresses!
Remember: Never reply to a spam or a removal address or link in one - SpamX makes it a piece-of-cake to send a complaint to the responsible ISP at the push of a button, though, and that's the right way to do it.
