Hi Melita!
I turn off the images in my Internet Explorer browser; in turn that also
turns off the image rendering in Outlook 2000 that I use as my email client.
Even though I use Outlook Express for only for my newsgroup reader--such as
for this forum--I don't know if OE is impacted by turned off images in my IE
browser since I never see HTML in OE.
Wow. That's extremely rude, invasive, and responsive (trespassing) of a
spammer to point to a file on your own local drive! I don't know the answer
to your question, however.
Despite projection of massive growth in electronic marketeering, I smell
doom for those entities--from the low-ball trashy scam artist to the Fortune
500 companies--that are _all_ dieing to engage in electronic marketeering
without the knowing and explicitly clear *permission* beforehand to spew to
their recipients. Little does the DMA want to realize that >90% of spewage
comes from low-ball scam artists, loan sharks, etc.
(OK, Cuspid is on the soapbox again. Expression and venting in a
constructive manner is a healthy thing.)
In HTML email, watch out for clear GIFs (aka one-pixel GIFs and Web Bugs)
that contains embedded data in the URL string! Spam-spewing interactive
electronic marketeering software can readily use merge fields anywhere in a
document including URL links! Interactive electronic marketeering spewage
software can maintain each intended email addy with a unique contact ID. In
turn the spewing interactive electronic marketeering software can embed the
unique contact ID in a URL link, for example. You would never know what you
were looking at if you saw it. The unique contact ID might typically be a
number text string--such as 50123--which in the spewage database correlates
to one email addy. I can demonstrate the format layout of an embedded URL if
anyone is interested. When an one-pixel GIF is triggered to "render" it can
also pass the embedded contact ID to the host. The "marketeering researcher"
will know instantly that contact ID 50123 opened their email message. Of
course, the URL link can include many other kinds of data besides the
contact ID.
The electronic marketeer might have also embedded fields that correspond to
electronic marketeering compaigns, specific email documents in a campaign,
etc.
Another danger is the "click-through" URL in HTML email. Just like the
one-pixel GIF, the URL may contact the same kinds of embedded data. The spam
marketeer may want to know who clicked the URL, which URL was clicked, when
the URL was clicked, etc.
There's nothing proprietary about it. It's a common but less known feature
of URLs. Devious electronic marketeers are particularly *quiet* about
implementing it because they are frothing at the mouth at the data they can
collect WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION.
Cuspid
"Melita" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
9d1amm$37o$[EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:9d1amm$37o$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
> "Heidi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> 9d0uar$u2o$[EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:9d0uar$u2o$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > It's bad enough that we have to get it, bad enough that most of it is
now
> in
> > HTML, but why do they have to make it so damn UGLY?? I got one this
> > morning, neon, poisonous shades of yellow, orange and black. Is the aim
> to
> > entice customers or make them sick?
> >
> And not only ugly, but 'poisonous' too. I'm starting to get them with web
> bugs installed now, too. I've only learned of the existence of them
<bugs>
> recently, and I got one similar to the one Cuspid posted...bogus 'greeting
> card', but mine didn't have a Yahoo reference. Did point to MP3.com, tho.
> I've gotten three, all saying I received a greeting card from "David" (his
> was "Susan", LOL, I guess they want to make sure it's an opposite-sex
> 'greeter' to increase the chance that you'll read it).
>
> My web bug had a [file:///C:] pointer in it, which I know will give you
your
> own directory structure when plugged into a browser. I'm just curious if
> anyone knows what the purpose of this particular bug is, and whether I
> should be concerned about it? The line after the IMG SRC tag was:
> [file:///C:/WINDOWS/Desktop/New Folder/Test
> 2/Preview/Autogen/clearpixel.gif]
>
> Also, does anyone know whether OE can be configured to render these null?
I
> don't know how to make it not execute/display HTML.
>
> Melita
>
>
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