From: "Aaron Konstam" <akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Sun, 2007-05-13 at 10:42 -0700, Norm wrote:
A while ago a pop up offer me a free laptop if I signed up for several
free offers showed up. Yes I knew exactly what the site really was and
if actually got the free lap top I probably would have drop dead from
the shock.
I created a separate email address I could monitor - they were the only
ones with the address so I knew anything on that address was spam.
Within 12 hours spam about 30 spam a day started to appear, I also gave
my actual telephone number. I started to receive a number of nuisance
calls within 12 hours as well. I could deal with the nuisance calls
easily so that was not a bother except for 1 persistent caller. Had
the calls been from a scum ball outfit I could have understood but the
persistent pest was AOL. direct requests to remove me from their list
did not work and they even laughed at me for making the request. I
finally resorted to contacting the head office and threatening legal
action if the calls (5 or 6 a day continued) immediately the calls
stopped - not 1 call after the email went to the head office legal
department..
The obvious close association between spamers and AOL is a concern and
to me explains in part why spam is such a problem to stop.
When I get bored counting the spam I will close the email address but
for now it has been a month and the spam shows no sign of slowing down.
I am tempted to bounce it all to AOL and let them deal with the spm.
Another option is not do spam tests like this. I think most of the rest
of us resist the temptation especially when they know the offer is a
fraud,
NEVER give out your real phone number when playing with spam bait. Give
them the phone number of your local CAIR office or something like that.
{^_^}
