How to Retaliate Against Spam Email
Usually, I feel fine just hitting delete or letting Gmail's spam filter do the job.
But sometimes my inbox receives a spam message that just triggers me, and I think, "I would love for that person to get a taste of his own medicine". Strangely, these feelings tend to get triggered when the message comes from a real person, rather than a spam robot. I guess we have become used to spam robots doing what spam robots do, but we have higher expectations of our fellow human beings.
This tutorial is for those times when you wish to act on revengeful feelings towards email spammers. It explains how to spam the spammer—not a "big spamming conglomerate" (leave that to the pros), but an individual who has breached your personal privacy policy.
So what to do? After researching a wide range of "fight back" ideas, I have settled on one simple technique: posting the spammer's email address on the internet, where a robot will find it and feed it to the spam machine. On one bulletin board, I found a particularly lovely way to implement this technique. It is this. Go to the fan site for the Russian band Aria, and leave the spammer's email address with a message such as:
"Hi, this person has been in touch with me and I think they might enjoy Aria's music."
I would add one step: post the message from a "proxy site". This will strip your IP address from the post and make it nearly impossible to trace the message back to you. You can do so easily by pasting the address of Aria's guestbook into the box below, which runs from the top proxy site UnrestrictedSurf.com.
Here is the address to copy and paste:
http://www.narod.ru/guestbook/?owner=329284
And here's the box to paste it into. Please note that it doesn't always work. You may have to click several times.
More Russian guestbooks to sign up for spam
If you don't think your spammer would enjoy the Russian band Aria, you can post a message on a different Russian guestbook. Why Russia? That country produces more spam geniuses than the rest of the planet combined. It is safe to assume that Russian spammers "harvest" Russian sites for email addresses posted there, and send them messages in Russian. Your spammer speaks Russian, right?To find Russian guestbooks on a particular topic, go to this Google search and add the topic of your choice, for instance, "puppet shows". The point is not so much that your spammer will receive messages about puppet shows. The guestbook will be "harvested" for email addresses by the spam gods, and your spammer should receive all kinds of unsollicited information, hopefully to his liking.
Another top way to retaliate against spam
If you have a blog or a website and you're not afraid to expose yourself, you can maintain a special blog post or a web page where you list the addresses of people who have spammed you. However, if a spammer finds his or her address on your page, they could get upset and the dispute could escalate. To minimize this risk, I suggest mentioning on your page that if a spammer writes and apologizes, you will remove his email address from public view.More ways to retaliate against spammers
What more should you do? Nothing at all.Most people would consider that once posting a spammer's email address on a Russian music site is fair, playful retribution. But if you go on a rampage and start signing up your spammer for newsletters, you are getting "contaminated by the spam energy." And you are probably breaking the law in the process. It could be traced to you, and you might be sued for harassment.
Other bad advice you will find on bulletin boards: sign up your spammer for spam emails by giving out his address on dodgy websites; or use your spammer's email address on Usenet news groups. I strongly advise against anything that involves impersonation or that exposes the recipient to abusive or potentially shocking content.
If you must seek revenge, I recommend you just do one playful litlle thing, as in the approach above, then forget everything about it and go back to enjoying your life.
Smiles,
Andy
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P.S. If you reply, please reply to my e-mail address as I won't be able to check this post regularly for replies.