Is Spam really so bad

Just 24 months ago my average daily intake of spam was only 931 letters per day. Today (12 Aug 2004) my minimum DAILY intake of spam is 35,000 letters per day. Yes, that comma is in the right place.

The fact is, I REGULARLY RECEIVE THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND UNWANTED EMAIL LETTERS PER DAY and I only have 19 pages ranked in the top ten of Google. You can bet your sweet bottom dollar that more prominent businesses receive even more spam than I do.

What about you? Unless you have a counter like I do I'll bet you can't even count the number of junk emails you get per week. I'll bet you get ten, fifteen solicitations for promiscuous sex per day.

"Uh, no Mr. Stone. I have those kinds of things filtered out before I ever open up my mail box."

Good for you. However, your mail box was still tied up with those letters, Your server was used, your resources were abused. You may not have seen those letters, but they still clogged your system; they still restricted the flow of genuine letters and information to you.

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What Is Spam?
Here is a real life example of spam at its worst. A used car salesman in Dottscrown Rhode Island sends long, illustrated email sales letters to 50 million people around the world, asking them to come in this week and buy a car. How many of these 50 million recipients do you believe would even consider driving or flying to Dottscrown Rhode Island to get a used car?
When the dust settles, out of those 50 million email deliveries there may accidentally be two people interested. That means that 49,999,998 people had long, illustrated, email sales letters delivered into their mail box that they did not want or need. That means 49,999,998 mail boxes were tied up, hundreds of servers were used, major resources abused, and all that just so some car salesman could reach two interested people.
Here is his reasoning: Since it costs no more to send 50 million email letters than it does to send 1, there is no financial reason to send illustrated letters ONLY to those people who might be interested in my used cars.
You say, "Wait a minute. NOBODY would do something like that!"
They have!
They definitely have.
Repeatedly, they have.
I have personally received many letters very much like that, not just for cars being sold in some woebegone place, but for roofing and hard wood floors too.
You may not see these unwanted emails yourself, with your filters and your software shooting down 99.7896% of the email coming to your address, but they are still clogging the system. They are costing you time. They are costing you money. They are costing you resources.

A word about spam from Paul Myers:

The Internet is not free. It seems close enough that people who don't understand math believe it is, but it's not, I assure you. Bandwidth costs money. Servers cost money. Drive space costs money.

So does bouncing email from full mailboxes. So does the time spent dealing with spam, unless you're going to tell me that everyone's time is worthless.

Server administration costs money, and a lot of it goes to handling problems caused by spam.

All of that expense is caused by people who KNOW that 99% of the people they send to have no interest in their crap.

That's theft.

I am so fed up with spam and the side costs and the cowardly anonymous abuse that I could truly and without a twinge of conscience do severe physical harm to a spammer these days. I mean SEVERE, as in, crush every finger on one of their hands with a baseball bat. And take out the second hand if they send me more after that.

I'm not a violent person, but I swear I'm that angry about this stuff.

I've had to shut down autoresponders and lists that were making me money just to keep a server functional, rather than hide behind systems that could delete legitimate email.

I'll spend the equivalent of 10 40-hour weeks this year, absolute minimum, handling spam. That's a lot of time stolen from me by scumbags who KNOW I don't want their crap. All because people like you defend them as being less than the scumbags they are. And because 1/20 people are stupid enough to actually buy from just one of them, ever, or fill out their forms or reply to their trash.

We have people in this group who've had to shut down legit lists and services that took them years to develop because email is just too dangerous. Why? Because spammers have pissed off such a large portion of the public that they don't even think about what was requested and what wasn't.

It doesn't help that so many people play games like "Request this report, free, by emailing here," and then adding people to lists without having informed them that was going to happen first. Lots of people. In this group. They're spammers, plain and simple.

And they get away with it because people like you refuse to acknowledge the reality of the situation.

When you refuse to condemn a thief, you dishonor every honest person.

What can be done about all this waste?

Well, if worse comes to worst as it is then we can let the guvment step in and do its thing -- punishing the law-abiding citizens and raking their cut off the top. If this course is followed then pretty soon email will become almost as efficient as the United States Post Office.
We can voluntarily ask our servers to begin charging us for the letters we send out. At least then the legitimate businesses will stop adding their pittance to the pile of junk mail we have to wade through.
We can ask our servers to begin charging the senders of email for each letter sent to us. Even at just a penny apiece aol.com and yahoo.com will be rolling in millions of dollars per hour in a matter of minutes. Just think if they charged two cents per letter and gave me a penny for every letter I get! Wow! I'd be making over $150 a day. You'd soon be trying to get as much mail as I do.
We can change our email addresses every time the spam begins to pile up over the ungodly line.
We can report every piece of spam that comes our way.
We can sign up with a WHITE LISTING service that acts as a filter and rakes the cream off the top.
We can opt out of the email loop altogether.

How can I opt out of the email loop?

Click HERE and you can have your very own NON email web mail system. It lets you PULL email, messages, information, voice, video, html and feeds to your desktop, and anything you ask for ONLY arrives when YOU want to read it.

You are in complete control of the process.
Once a month, or once a minute, you are in
complete control of the messages and
information reaching you.

Have you signed up for a newsletter that didn't live up to your expectations? Click, that thing is gone, never to show up in your receptacle again. The publisher doesn't even know you quit on him.

"Uh, Mr. Stone,,, I'm not all that interested in newsletters."

No, but I'll bet you have a family and a circle of friends, huh?

Set up just one account for the bunch of you and then --

You can do instant messaging to ALL of you at one time.
Each of them can read your message when they have time.
Each of them can send an instant message to the whole gang.
Each of them can write a private message to you.
Each of them can chat with you (and the whole gang) at one time convenient to most of you.
Each of them can decide which messages they want to read.
Each of them can pick up certain "channels". These are kind of like channels on your television.
NONE OF THEM has to pay to use the software or to receive information.
Yes, ONE account must be paid for, but compared to other distribution systems, the cost to operate up to 100 channels is dirt cheap at just $19.95 per month --
And remember, it is all spam-free. Anybody in your circle starts sending spam, you just cut him out of the system. He's gone! He's gone for GOOD. Let me say it again -- YOU HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL with this system.

Click HERE and you can get started immediately.

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You are going to love this little jewel as much as I do.

Is there another way?

Yes. One other way to get out of the email loop is to get your own domain, that just costs $8.95 per year from goddaddy.com -- Then you can get your very own web site for only $4.95 per month. This price delivers:

500 MB Disk Space / Storage
UNLIMITED True POP3/SMTP e-mail
UNLIMITED FTP Access 24/7
10 Gig Monthly Data Transfer
Interchange Shopping Cart
Your very own Chat System
UNLIMITED Auto-responders
Web-Based Control Panel (cPanel 5)
Optional MSFrontPage Extensions
CGI Scripts, Perl Support
MySQL
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HTML Web Design Resource Center
E-mail Tech Support
PHP 4, Java/JavApplets, and Much More...

That chat system will let you talk with your family and friends as often as you like. That 500 megs of room will let you post pictures of everyone in your circle of influence and every one of the fleas on their dogs too.

You can also set up an account with boldchat so that anyone visiting your web site can have a chat with you at no cost to them. All you have to do is be online when they come to visit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Um, what about that reporting all the spam I get. How do I do that?"

I receive thousands and thousands of spam pieces every day. The only pieces I do anything about are those taking money out of my pocket, reaching customers with free spam whom I have to spend time, thought, money, and technology to reach because I don't use spam.

And that is what I'm inviting you to do. Don't try to stop the whole avalanche with one puny fist, just take on that portion taking money out of your pocket. I'll work on my little corner of the market; you work on yours.

If you try to stop the whole avalanche you will be smothered and stop doing anything. Set yourself the daily task of reporting one, two, or three spamers -- no more than ten.

Please understand that I do not seek wild, comprehensive, indiscriminate accusations flung at every revolting piece of mail reaching your box.

Be responsible. Make sure it is spam.

Here. Take a look at how I work my mail for reporting spam.

I check to see if there are 5, 10, 20 of the same letter in my mail box. This means the user/sender is using HARVESTED names, that I did NOT sign up, did not OPT IN, to receive their mail.
I check to see if there is an UNSUBSCRIBE opportunity in the form letter which I can use.
I use that opportunity to UNSUBSCRIBE --
But knowing that 99% of these UNSUBSCRIBE opportunities are phony, I move that letter to my ONE DAY KEEP file.
When my UNSUBSCRIBE request is returned as undeliverable I match it up with the sender from my daily keep file and begin the spam reporting process.

A Terrible Note: The competition I hate most HAS a way of unsubscribing. This competitor will NOT ever be reported by me, and shouldn't be by you.

Reporting Spam

Open the letter, don't just preview it.
With the letter open in front of you, hold your <control> key down and click on the <F3> key. This initiates a pop up screen with the whole, entire header and letter.
Copy ALL of the letter.
Visit SpamCop and (set up an account first) PASTE it into the reporting window.
Click on SUBMIT.

The Worst Offenders:

The spamers I hate most are those who trick me into opening their vile spews.

With their RE: * whatever, "RE: Thanks for the financial Tip!" for example.
With their Hey, remember me,
or, Here is the Information You Requested
and with their completely off topic headline which tricks me into opening the letter.

These I do report: These letters I forward to the Federal Trade Commission. If they get enough complaints about a company, they will eventually take action. mailto:uce@ftc.gov

If the spam advertises something blatantly illegal (such as a chain letter), it should also be reported to the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service. mailto:internetfraud@ifccfbi.gov or mailto:fraud@uspis.gov

Is there still another solution that keeps you from being buried alive? Yes, get your own mail box that only your friends and customers can reach. Click HERE for more information.

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Is Spam
Really So BAD?

What Is Spam?

Quit Leaving Your Success
To Chance

What can be done about all this waste?

How can I opt out of the email loop?

Is there another way?

Is Spam Really So BAD?

What Is Spam?

Quit Leaving Your SuccessTo Chance

What can be done about all this waste?

How can I opt out of the email loop?

Is there another way?

Is Spam
Really So BAD?

Quit Leaving Your Success
To Chance