Spam sucks!! (Part 1 of 2)
Zedd, 11/19/02
I’m sure you’ve thought this yourself if you’ve been on the internet for any length of time. It’s all over the place. Generally, spam is thought of as junk email, but it’s spreading at an alarming pace into other realms of the electronic world. These days, when I sign onto IM (and ICQ, when I used that), I almost always get at least one or two messages immediately. Unfortunately they are not from friends. I have taken to not even reading them. Instead, I just put the “person” on my block list. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help because they just make a new nickname and message me again the next time I sign on. Here’s one of my most recent examples:
“RxGary5018: Hi [you sexy biatch] Long time no See, have you missed me? I’ve turned 18 now and got into some kinky stuff. ? Wanna see? I’m a naughty girl!” I mean…come on…sheesh…this one had a guy’s name.
The next form of spam is the everpresent pop-up ad. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a pitch for the X-10 camera, or the endless online casino ads. They don’t even change them, it’s just the same one over and over. Sheesh. Luckily, thanks to a new browser (Phoenix), you can disable pop-ups for all sites! Yay!
Now, the last, and probably most abundant, form of spam is the good old email. Several years ago, most of these actually came from friends and were known as chain letters. “Send this to X people or else!!!” This wasn’t too bad. Sometimes the letters were even mildly entertaining, and I’d perhaps give a little chuckle as I sent it to my trash bin.
Unfortunately, today, spam isn’t so benign. I have had yahoo email address for some time. I never actually use it for anything, other than to put into forms that say “email address required” or some such. I will translate these phrases into what they really mean: “Give us your name and email address so we can pester you with countless emails and even make it seem as if we know who you are.” After a few years of putting this address on forms, I have finally reaped the benefits of such a stratagem. My real email account remains spam free, while the yahoo address gets bombarded with junk mail. Check out the graphic below, and it will give you an idea of just how bad things have got, and they’re getting worse. Just so you know, the collection periods were exactly two weeks long and were consecutive.
I also still check my very first email address every once in a while, and it gets about 6 emails every day. While they are less in number, these emails tend to be less wholesome than what is sent to my yahoo account, advertising for XXX sites and penis enlargers. I don’t bother to tell them, but I can find my own porn if I like…and don’t have an inferiority complex about my third leg.
Anyway, I don’t feel like keeping you for too much longer today, so I’ll tell you about what I think should be done to stop spam another day.
later