I used to be a big fighter of email spam. I even wrote an ebook on how to find the spammer’s actual IP address, report him/her to their IP provider and how to prevent email spam from the start. I used Spam Cop exclusively but they didn’t always get it right, which caused some credibility issues with their members and with major IPs.

That was back in 2000 and not much has changed with the amount of spam sent out hourly. I used to turn every piece of spam I got into their provider, every single one. I did that for several years and while I was successful at decreasing the amount of email spam reaching my inbox, I was never able to completely get rid of it. Once your email address gets in the hands of a spammer, it’s virtually impossible to keep your inbox clean, regardless of how good your spam filters might be. Certainly some anti-spam programs are better than others and what you pay for them makes little difference in how good they may or may not be.

I don’t hunt down and report spammers anymore. I also don’t get a lot of spam, well … at least I didn’t until I started working as a webmaster for a military organization. Now I get spammed with Viagra. How stupid is that? But then no one ever said spammers were smart, except maybe another spammer. The spam is sent via a webmaster form on the site I maintain so they don’t actually have my email address but the outcome is the same, spam in my inbox. I’m also getting spammed with online marketing companies. They had to have gotten my email from my whois information. Most are web design companies offering me such a deal! Or SEO companies wanting to optimize my business site for high traffic and relevant, keyword, search returns for all the major search engines, along with hundreds of minor search engines. There’s only one little problem they have all over-looked. I’m not marketing anything online, nada, zilt, zero! And if I were, I sure as hell wouldn’t use any company that has to resort to spamming in order to get customers.

I could just ignore this new business email spam I’m suddenly getting but I think I will use my blog to rant about them or rat them out instead. Turning them in to their IPs is a complete wast of time, especially since it’s so easy and inexpensive to just get another one. No, instead I will waste my time writing about them and hope someone happens by and reads my rants and it somehow helps another from falling victim to a marketing scam! Yes, I said scam because spam and scam are related in my opinion and my opinion counts when it comes to letting go of my money!

I used to think that spammers were just victims of some so called marketing guru. That they were told that they would make lots of cash from spamming when in truth they only got a big headache. It was hard for me to believe anyone would buy anything from an email they didn’t ask to receive. But I was wrong. Email spam continues because it works and the risk is small. But that may be changing, at least for those spammers living and operating in the US.

I found this news flash, Feds say spammer wouldn’t stop on the Houston Chronicle site about a spammer, Christopher Smith, who was arrested and faces a grand jury investigation on his email spam business. This spammer made millions before he got caught and after he was arrested and released on bail he tried to launch his pill pushing factory from the Dominican Republic. What an idiot, but clearly a wealthy one, at least until the feds confiscated everything he had. It will be interesting to see if the courts actually give him a sentence worthy of his crimes.

This is a good anti-spam site, Spam Help if anyone is interested. It has a good anti-spam news area on the front page. Right now it’s providing information about an ex America Online employee who sold 92 million screen names and email addresses to spammers. Amazing, 92 million! He was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison. The justice wheels are spinning but will it make a difference? I doubt it but it makes my heart sing to know that some will get what they deserve. However, I’d like it more if they would just stop but what are the chances of that happening? None, I’d say.

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