gmail spam

[expat]

I just got some spam from an agent. What surprised me was that it was addressed directly to my gmail account. I never send anything from that, all I do with it is forward other mail to it so that I can chack it all together at work.

So how did he get it? (Yes I could ask him but I assume he will say "you must have given it to one of our partner companies").

[oracleslave]

Originally Posted by expat

I just got some spam from an agent. What surprised me was that it was addressed directly to my gmail account. I never send anything from that, all I do with it is forward other mail to it so that I can chack it all together at work.

So how did he get it? (Yes I could ask him but I assume he will say "you must have given it to one of our partner companies").

Are you an ID card early adopter?

[expat]

Originally Posted by oracleslave

Are you an ID card early adopter?

Nope.

On all the fast-track Iris recognition schemes I can find, though. Sell my granny to get through that immigration line faster. I hate queueing.

[Xenophon]

All your email address are belong to us.

[expat]

Here's another question then: if spam annoys the bejasus out of everybody, and 2/3 of all emails are spam, isn't there something we can do about it?

[EternalOptimist]

Originally Posted by expat

Here's another question then: if spam annoys the bejasus out of everybody, and 2/3 of all emails are spam, isn't there something we can do about it?

The Ozzies made a big fuss a few weeks ago about closing down an Oz operation that was supposedly responsible for 25% of the worlds spam. IIRC there was a Russian guy who had his flat broken into and his knees bashed with baseball bats by some anti spammer dudes.

[Sysman]

Originally Posted by expat

Here's another question then: if spam annoys the bejasus out of everybody, and 2/3 of all emails are spam, isn't there something we can do about it?

Well let's see.

• For long enough Microsoft did sweet FA about the spam emanating from Hotmail.
• Most of the spam on Usenet comes from Google Groups accounts. Google don't seem to give sweet FA about that.

If two of the world's largest IT companies can't be bothered stopping spam that comes from their own networks, what chance do the rest of us stand?

[d000hg]

Originally Posted by expat

Here's another question then: if spam annoys the bejasus out of everybody, and 2/3 of all emails are spam, isn't there something we can do about it?

The only solution I heard was to introduce micro-payments for email. But the infrastructural implications of setting up such a system are terrifying - or a positive gold-mine if you could get involved with it

[expat]

What about challenge-response for senders not on whitelist? My ISP offered that at one time, and I switched it on for one email acount, but then they stopped offering it, or to be more precise I'd guess whatever package they bought stopped offering it.

That seems to me to make sense: though I suppose it wouldn't stop spam (actually double it!) but it would save me from being snowed under by junk.

Yes it is that bad on one account: unfortunately the one that is <first name>@<surname>.com, which got on a list many years ago and never got off. Last time I activated it to check, it was getting over 100 spam a day.

[Doggy Styles]

Originally Posted by expat

Here's another question then: if spam annoys the bejasus out of everybody, and 2/3 of all emails are spam, isn't there something we can do about it?

Simple. Get the ISPs to delete 2/3 of all emails that pass through.