Slashdot Mirror
Opting Out Increases Spam?
J. L. Tympanum writes "I used to ignore spam but recently I have been using the opt-out feature. Now I get more spam than ever, especially of the Nigerian scam (and related) types. The latter has gone from almost none to several a day. Was I a fool for opting out? Is my email address being harvested when I opt out? Has anybody had similar experience?"
I used to avoid water but recently I have been using the shower. Now I get more wet than ever, especially of the makes-my-skin-pruny (and related) types. The latter has gone from almost none to one or more a week. Was I a fool for taking a shower? Is my skin being harvested when I shower? Has anybody had a similar experience?
Is this guy serious?
I would give him the benefit of the doubt if this was circa 1997. But it's 2009, and even the birds on the trees are singing the tune "who tries to opt-out on spam is a fucking fool and deserves to have his e-mail harvested to hell and back". Or some such tune.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I have had the exact same experience with my hotmail account a few years ago. I would get almost no spam. This was great for years with that account. Then one day I got a few spam. I tried the "opt out" option and almost moments later I saw multiple spams coming in. I have not tried it with my gmail or any other account for fear that my spam will double.
Imagine there's a door to door salesman who keeps harassing people on your street and the cops can't catch him. He keeps harassing you too, and so you stop answering the door and the salesman thinks no one is home but he still tries a few times a day. Then you hear that if you were to only tell the salesman (who is breaking the law) to stop then he will stop, so you yell out for him and any salesmen to fuck off, and you keep doing so, and now all the salesmen know you're home and so they all keep knocking on your door.
Or are you trying to make one of your friends/enemies look dumb?
Do you have ESP?
Has anyone explained why opting out is a bad idea yet?
AT&ROFLMAO
Not just that, but you confirmed to the spammers that you were stupid enough to believe something they said. Consider the advice of the great philosophers Mr. T and Nelson.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Captain Kirk? Is that you??
It works even better if you include your SSN, DOB, and banking info too.
But if you really want to improve your fortunes, I know this Nigerian Prince that I can put you in contact with.
No no no, it's not a contest at all.
The lame stories are being posted to make you complain, thus verifying who actually reads the articles so they can make a list and sell it.
Are the editors in some kind of contest to put up the lamest "Ask Slashdot" story? If so, they can end it right now -- Timothy has definitely won.
Or maybe not. Somebody might ask "why doesn't my computer work when it's not plugged in?"
That's a good one, but I think someone should go for "Ask Slashdot: Should I shove my Eee PC 701 up my own ass or is that a bad idea? What are the technical implication of such a hardware procedure?" Followed by "Ask Slashdot: How do I get this thing out? Urgent question."
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Or PERHAPS he should try WRITING scripts for SUPERHERO COMICS.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
to believe anyone reading slashdot would seriously post this. I mean...come on...spammers have been doing this for YEARS.
One sure way to get more spam is to opt-out on email you didn't dbl opt-in to.
But then again, spammers must know that even slashdotters are suckers and that there is no hope to rid the planet of spammer scum.
[Mr. Burns is reminiscing about his grandfather's old Atom Smashing Plant]
Burns' Grandfather: Come on, men! Smash those atoms! You there, turn out your pockets.
[Two goons seize a waifish worker and turn out his pockets]
Burns' Grandfather: Aha - atoms! One, two, three, four... SIX of them! Take him away!
Waif: You can't treat the working man this way! One of these days we'll form a union, and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve! Then we'll go too far, and become corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!
Burns' Grandfather: The Japanese? Those sandal-wearing goldfish tenders? Ha ha! Bosh! Flimshaw!
Mr. Burns: Oh, if only we'd listened to that young man, instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven.
They want your innocence back.
But really, I've been using the same main email address for 12+ years now and in the first couple of years I did sometimes send the opt-out replies but mostly gave up because I just couldn't be bothered as the SPAM levels were so low, I do recall one time being Joe-jobbed and that was a bitch as I got more bounce messages in a day than SPAMs in a month and some of the emails were from real people simply emailing "opt out".
Nowadays my ISP uses Brightmail for spam filtering so I don't see most of it and the ones that get through are 'Mailwashed' before they have a chance of getting to my email app.
This topic does take me back though, anyone remember the early days of email and the myth of getting a computer virus simply by opening an email? Never happened on my Amiga, but Microsoft turned that myth into reality with Outlook and everyone has been plaged with virus in emails ever since...
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
It's worse when you have a catch-all domain, especially if that domain shares a name with a blockbuster movie about to come out, or is in theaters, or was successful in theaters. It doesn't matter if it's .com, .org, .net, or whatever: spammers will forge under your domain and you'll get the bounce-back, and some of the addresses they spam to will also be spammers. Those spammers will then harvest those addresses and spam them directly, creating a feedback loop that grows so massive that your ISP will disable your server-side filters because they're too busy filtering the incoming spam, forcing you to close your catch-all domain to only those usernames for which you want to receive mail.
And then it will take hours for your ISP to open a new username at that domain instead of the mere seconds to whitelist it yourself, so you might as well register some obscure domain no one would ever want to trademark.
Though you may want to choose a domain that doesn't contain any HTML tag names like "script" or "table" in it. Some sites will strip anything that looks like an HTML tag from your registered e-mail address, leaving you unable to receive your password verification link.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Google invented Al Gore!
If you had hundreds of pieces of junk mail in your physical mailbox for every actual letter, and you started losing real mail in the flood, then it probably would be illegal. Of course, that would only happen if junk-mail senders could control the brains of your hapless neighbours and form them into an army of junk mail delivery zombies.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.