Spammers have never shown any signs of moral development, but many of them have benefited from the technical intelligence
of corrupt geeks who support their nefarious activities. Now, when I write about Bad Things, I anonymize the details and usually
avoid making overtly derogatory comments in print; however, where spammers are concerned, the gloves come off. So here - without
names or contact details but with lots of insulting comments - is the story.
Related links
M. E. Kabay, Ph.D., CISSP-ISSMP, is Associate Professor in the Division of Business and Management at Norwich University in
Northfield, Vt. Mich can be reached by e-mail and his Web site.
New information assurance journal - Norwich University Journal of Information Assurance (NUJIA). See http://nujia.norwich.edu
Recently I received a press release from a famous instrument company, which here we will call, say, Famous Instrument Co.
Including URLs, the message included 16KB of fascinating detail about… guitars. Why they sent this information to a professor
of information assurance is beyond me - except for guessing that they really do not care a whit about selectivity or are too
incompetent to bother screening their lists of victims.
The significant issue for readers of this newsletter is the company's instructions for removal from its list:
"Remove me from this list <mailto: removeme-famous@mail.dimwit.com> (Clicking on the link will send an e-mail automatically
removing you from our distribution list)"
Well, no, it won't - at least not for me, and probably not for lots of other people either.
Now first of all, I don't make a habit of using remove-me instructions on spam; however, when it comes from established companies,
I sometimes guess that some creep has suggested spamming to a fool who doesn't know any better, and so the instructions may
actually work. Unfortunately, replying from the account where I send e-mail won't remove the address which received the spam.
