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Opting Out From 3Com Spam Requires Opting In | 197 comments (197 topical) | Post A Comment
No urban legend[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by Anonymous User on Tue Mar 28, 2006 at 11:55:22 AM PDT

It is a confirmed fact that unsubscribing only gets you more spam. It's been tested time and again: create a throwaway email account and don't reference it anywhere. Wait a few weeks. It should be free of spam. (If the account is getting spam at this time, and you didn't give out the address at all, the throwaway provider must have; ditch them and find another.)

Now, the next time you get a spam at your regular email, copy the unsubscribe address. Send mail from the throwaway account to that address with "REMOVE" in the subject, just as the spammer instructed. Come back in a week and witness an inbox chock-full of special v1agra offers, online p0ker tips, and 419 scams.

Any remaining doubts you had about what "remove" addresses really do should be gone after that.

--------
I am the terror that flaps in the net!
I am the autofocus that makes all your photographs blurry!

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



Not necessiarly[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#27)
by kamnet on Wed Apr 05, 2006 at 12:35:14 AM PDT

Just because your unused, unreferenced e-mail account gets spam doesn't mean that the provider provided it. Spammers have become very adept at creating software which puts together common strings of text in order to guess if an e-mail address is valid/active/legitimate.

From the ever-popular johnsmith@something.com to the slightly more ambiguous jsmith2003@something.com, or even more rediculous strings like heartthrob384938@something.com, it doesn't really matter as long as it is somewhat logical.

I think at this point the only way you could guarantee that a naked, unprotected e-mail account could not receive spam is if you used a very randomized order of letters and numbers.

2ab38204asdop39248@hotmail.com, anybody?

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



Opting Out From 3Com Spam Requires Opting In | 197 comments (197 topical) | Post A Comment
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