Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 16:29:25 -0600 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: abgoeree@uwnet.nl, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SPAM was: (OT: [REJECTED MAIL]????????) Message-ID: <14997.37573.925224.981148@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <200102222206.PAA26443@usr05.primenet.com> References: <14997.31070.299908.592001@guru.mired.org> <200102222206.PAA26443@usr05.primenet.com>
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Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> types: > > I'd agree that it's upside down, but it's also the way spam works on > > all those other media. You have to ask to have your address taken off > > their phone list or junk mail list. Of course, just asking to be > > removed isn't enough for SPAM (and has been shown to get you put on > > spam lists in some cases); you have to complain in such a way that > > the spammer gets interfered with. > I have a list of 6 that I like to do: All good tactics. > 1) ALWAYS call the 1-800 number; be very polite. The more > polite you are, the longer they will talk with you, and > the higher their WATS line costs will be. Let them know > that they have made a grave business error, and suggest > that whoever sold them the service should be legally > responsible for not warning them about the backlash they > will have undobtedly been subjected to by now. > Many of them are just automated machine that want a number and address. Letting the phone sit for a while will also drive their WATS line cost up as well. During the Sprint "Fridays Free" campaign, I'd spend a couple of hours on Fridays calling the non-800 numbers as well. > Then there's the purely vindictive, which no one would ever do: > 10) If their ISP won't do anything about them, do an altavista > search for "unsubscribe"; altruistically protect their email > from the same act that annoyed you in the first place, and > unsubscribe them from all the SPAM lists that exist. If you > did this a lot, you might even have a libhttp client that > could (after a while) hit several hundred of these with one > command line command... You could also just subscribe their email address to a list of *your* choice. After all, they seem to think putting people on email lists without their permission is acceptable. My favorite would be a news.answers digest, as they could clearly have questions they need answered. > Then there's the obvious nose-thumbing: > 7) If their email address is with an intolerant ISP, get the ISP > to shut it down. This can be automated, and is the point of the "Complain" button I suggested. The problem with all of these actions is that they're being done by a minute fraction of the users on the net. Evidence (i.e. - the infamouse green card spam) indicates that even 100 complaints per valid response is acceptable to spammers. Typical marketing numbers indicate that a 1% positive response is acceptable when the spammer actually pays for the message. The conlusion would seem to be that to have a noticable effect on spam, you need to get a *major* negative response. Hence you need a large majority of users to hit "Complain" instead of just "Delete". <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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