Spam Research Six Month Report

Zoomer writes "Every day, millions of people receive dozens of unsolicited commercial e-mails (UCE), known popularly as 'spam.' Some users see spam as a minor annoyance, while others are so overwhelmed with spam that they are forced to switch e-mail addresses. This has led many Internet users to wonder: How did these people get my e-mail address? In the summer of 2002, CDT embarked on a project to attempt to determine the source of spam. To do so, we set up hundreds of different e-mail addresses, used them for a single purpose, and then waited six months to see what kind of mail those addresses were receiving. The results offer Internet users insights about what online behavior results in the most spam. The results also debunk some of the myths about spam." Update: 04/12 15:47 GMT by CN : About a minute after this went live, I found that michael posted this earlier. Mea culpa.

Do as I say...

[iconian]

.... E-mail addresses composed of short names and initials like bob@ or tse@, or basic combinations like smithj@ or toms@ will probably receive more spam. E-mail addresses need not be incomprehensible, but a user with a common or short name may want to modify or add to it in some way in his or her e-mail address.

For further information, please contact Ari Schwartz at the Center for Democracy & Technology, 202-637-9800, [e-mail].

Anybody see the irony in that?

Hrmm...

[acehole]

We might look at this from a different perspective, if we eliminate all spam the 'penis enlargement' and 'hot barely legal lolitas that want you!' industries might collapse overnight.

Another Internet phenomenon they should research:

[ne0nex]

The /. effect on webservers. Obviously starting with their own.

You said it!

[DrMrLordX]

With all that sodium and saturated fat, it's just not safe to eat it. And it's not cheap anymore, either, so it'll ruin your budget too! I guess it's okay baked in a brown sugar glaze with raisins, though. If you're desperate for meat.

Support your local troll.

Who wants to get rid of spam?

[ZaPhOd42]

I love spam!

Since I've had an e-mail address I've had my penis extended 6 times, my breasts enlarged 8 times, I own the worlds supply of viagra and, and I get to have hot teen sex every night with 18 year old nymphos!

And to top it all off I've just received £3498435784354085 from Senator Hamza Kalu from Nigeria just for opening a bank account! ;)

Re:Really good report

[olau]

Why would you use images? ASCII art is great:

$ banner -w 40 [e-mail]

It is a bit large, though.

Re:Do as I say...

[ecrips]

The real irony, is that now it's in plain text on slashdot...

Wishful thinking?

[ziriyab]

from the article:
While [posting to] "alt.sex.erotica" generated twice as much spam as the next newsgroup, we do not believe that this data supports any strong conclusion regarding which newsgroups are the most susceptible to spam.

Now, is that just wishful thinking on the authors' part :)

Re:WHOIS

[Pharmboy]

It's pretty funny. I wonder if people with domains like "fuckoffasshole.com" get called, too...

On a similar note, I personally own a few dozen domain names, many of which do not even have any DNS entries, no site, etc. I just love getting those

"I saw your website at www.????.com and really liked it. We think we can help you get more exposure."

Well yea, like maybe I could get more exposure if I the bloody domain had a web site to begin with.....

Re:spam is a killer

[AnotherBlackHat]

There might be some hope for you in the works.
Congress is trying to pass a bill in order to control spam.

So what's the thing that might give me some hope?