I submit spam to Spamcop and even pay for their filtering service. I’ve posted it to Please Spam Me! to try and be sarcastic about it. But, the truth is, spam pisses me off as much now as it did three years ago.
So, I decided to fight back. I now have a hacked together, mostly automated solution that creates this: Free Mass E-mail Addresses. What you see there is a list of over 1800 e-mail addresses of spammers and people who have sent me a virus (99.5% of them are spammers, though). The page exists as an attempt to lure other spambots and e-mail harvesters to grab that list of addresses. The purpose is two-fold. First, I hope to dilute spammers’ databases with a couple thousand invalid addresses. And what about those addresses that are valid and still send UCE? Well, those people will happily find their way onto the “Hot sex with wild horses” list.
I didn’t really think that this page would do all that much, but recently, it’s been firing up people like my diet page. Last week I had a person request to be removed. This week, someone contacted my web host telling them “[the people at laze.net] currently have an updated list… which is being used by other people to send unsolicited pornographic emails to people on this list. Was wondering if you have any control over this activity – such as having your client remove the page.” I’m firing people up!
But all those folks have to do is read the page: for a mere $500, I will remove their address. With a smile, even.
Posted in Technology