Alfredo G�mez Grande <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Ok, How do a spammer get your email address?
> 
> Well, he goes to a PUBLIC source like THE INTERNET and GET IT.

Often.  Sometimes spammers will guess email addresses (the so-called
"dictionary attack"), but most spam goes to addresses harvested from
one place or another.

Let me tell you a story...  about ten years ago, I ran a small business
from home selling computer software.  In order to do this, I published
my home address as part of a small advert in a magazine.  Yet not one
person came to my house and urinated in my biscuit tin.  Why not?  I'd
made my address public, hadn't I?

> If you make it PUBLIC, you are subjected to the rules of being PUBLIC,
> aren't you?

Where are these "rules" written down?  When did I agree to them?

> And about your comments: Anybody is going to scrawl your house with
> graffiti. You can defend your property, even with weapons (only US). But we
> are talking about mailboxes so let's don't go beyond the limits of the
> Reality.

Quite right; there is a very finite amount of wall-space in your house
for graffiti.

But you may be right; perhaps we all should opt-out of the spammers'
lists.  A spam plopped into my emailbox as I was writing this, so let's
put your theories to the test.  The spam goes:

  From: UK Prank Calls <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Cc: 
  Subject: Play Hilarious Prank Calls
  Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 19:09:13 +0100

  To play hilarious prank calls, which now includes a download of celebrity voice 
samples,
  so you can now create you own celebrity prank calls! Please visit

  http://ukprankcalls.com

I have no idea who "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" is but it isn't me.  Oh well.  No
removal instructions...  but perhaps if I email Mr [EMAIL PROTECTED],
he might remove me from his list?

  A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
  recipients. The following address(es) failed:

    [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
      SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data:
      host mx2.mail.yahoo.com [64.157.4.82]:
      554 delivery error:
      dd This user doesn't have a yahoo.com account ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - 
mta619.mail.yahoo.com

Obviously not.  So the "removal" instructions must be on his website, right?

Apparently not.  One would almost think that his spammer didn't want me to remove
myself from his mailing list...

James.

-- 
James J. Farmer
Venue:    University of Birmingham, School of Computer Science
Email:    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jjf/

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