[Sca-cooks] ...... has a virus

[Bill Fisher]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 00:29:51 -0500, Martin G. Diehl <mdiehl at nac.net> wrote:

> Careful ... that could be viewed as a TOS violation by your
> ISP.
> 
> In addition, I wouldn't put it past a SPAMer to use that pose
> to run a con on you (e.g. "Please contribute $xx to cover my
> Bandwidth costs").  ... and at the same time, get yet another
> address to SPAM. ... Probably then try to sell you burglar
> alarms, etc.

Ok, I'll say it, this is part of what I deal with for a living, don't reply
to spammers, don't harass them, etc.  If a person has a virus,
deal with it, chances are they don't know they have it.  Don't
call that ISP either and complain, because chances are you
don't have the correct originating address.

If you get the wrong person by default, all they need to do is 
notify your ISP's abuse department (usually abuse@) and 
your account is in jeopardy and you can go on nationwide 
"abuse" lists as a potentially abusive customer.  Usually they
don't hit you for just one, then they call you, then they turn off
your account and call you, then they just turn it off.

The only thing you do by sending a reply to a spammer is give them
a new e-mail address to send e-mail to.  Heck, most of the time
the are using a virus infested machine to send spam these days.


> It is possible ... and not at all difficult for the SPAMer to
> code the message to identify the eMail address the used to
> send that message ... IOW, by reading a SPAM message, rhe
> SPAMer's web server confirms your eMail address as valid and
> you invite more SPAM to your email address.   ... You make the
> SPAMer more efficient.

It is possible, but highly unlikely, spammers get paid by how many
messages they send in bulk, NOT by the read e-mail.  Also, the last
thing they want, since spam is illegal is to give a link back to them 
to get caught.  An html connection is traceable. 

> Depending on your browser and/or email client it may be
> possible for them to harvest your eMail address.

I used Gmail ;-) and Thunderbird....I steer clear of Microsoft e-mail 
products.

Cadoc


-- 

"The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it" -
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