Spamming

[Kelly Burhenne <burhennk -at- SMTPGW -dot- LIEBERT -dot- COM>]

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     cmdavis asks:

     > I know of Paul Trummel's postings, but what it "Spam?" I had never
     > heard that term before.  Can someone educate me?

     I've heard a few different theories on the use of the word "spam".
     Someone on this list said it came from the idea of dropping spam into
     a fan (it would go everywhere).

     However, the author of the ROADMAP workshops, Patrick Crispen (whom I
     trust about matters such as this), says the following:

     "It's possible, even easy, to get a list of every Usenet newsgroup and
     publicly accessible LISTSERV list.  With very little thought, you can
     convert the list into a program that will mail the same message to
     every single one of these groups."

     "Doing this is called "spamming", after the Monty Python sketch quoted
     above."  -Patrick Crispen

     He goes on to say that three such mailings have been successful. One
     said the end of the world was coming, another advertised the services
     of his lawfirm in the "Green Card Lottery" message, and the third,
     entitled "MAKE.MONEY.FAST" was the Usenet equivalent of a chain
     letter.

     He goes on with the following advice on "What To Do When You See A
     Spam":

     -never reply to the group (the spammer won't read it and the rest of
     the list will get annoyed)

     -reply to the poster at his own mailbox (however, sometimes spammers
     hit and run--they may have already closed out their accounts)

     -if you're angry at the spammer, write to the administrator of his
     site.  If the spammer is monkey -at- zoo -dot- com his administrator is
     postmaster -at- zoo -dot- com

     -or, you can mailbomb, which consists of sending lots of e-mail until
     his site or account crashes. This is a very bad idea. Lots of innocent
     users will also be affected by the crash.

     IMO, the best thing to do is either ignore it or write to their
     postmaster and (hopefully) have their Internet account revoked.

     -Kelly Burhenne
      burhennk -at- smtpgw -dot- liebert -dot- com
      Columbus, OH