Actually the US Federal Trade Commision did a survey and found that this isn't really true. Most opt-out pages simply don't do anything. Verifying valid email addresses doesn't really matter to most spammers apparently.
www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/pubs/removeme.ppt Richard -----Original Message----- From: Nexus [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 7:43 AM To: Richard M. Smith; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Full-Disclosure] Drive-by download from a spam email message ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard M. Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'Richard M. Smith'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 3:05 AM Subject: [Full-Disclosure] Drive-by download from a spam email message > Hi, > > I just tried to opt-out from a spam email message from some sort > Internet keyword system. When I went to the opt-out page for the *doh!* ;-) The "opt-out" link is just a trick to confirm to the spammers that there is a live human being on the end of that email address - sure you may not get another one from that particluar spamming domain, but you will get even more from others since you confirmed that the email address is read. They sometimes use other tricks to track live accounts, such as web bugs and other tags. The only reply to spam is to forward it to the domains abuse@ address (if they have one) and the upstream ISP. Cheers. _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
