From: Alan <alano@teleport.com>
Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 02:06:55 +0800
To: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@amaranth.com>
Subject: Re: Spam Prevention System?
In-Reply-To: <199705231429.JAA30660@mailhub.amaranth.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970523101839.6292E-100000@linda.teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Fri, 23 May 1997, William H. Geiger III wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> In <199705230854.EAA23450@dhp.com>, on 05/23/97 
>    at 02:54 AM, lucifer@dhp.com (lucifer Anonymous Remailer) said:
> 
> >I was wondering if perhaps a way to minimize the hassle with sitting on
> >one's thumb while waiting for unwanted email to download could be eased
> >by an email program which retreived only headers, allowed you to delete
> >the unwanted ones, and then retrieve the wanted ones, deleting the rest.
> >  Is this feasible?
> 
> Yes it is but will not help much. As seen with the subject lines of the
> ascii art posted to the list it is quite simple to give a message a
> subject that would not reveal that it was spam until the entire message
> was downloaded and opened.

Misleading spam subject lines are nothing new.  (Just got one today, in
fact entitled "Aren't you the one who...".) 

The idea (in the spammers small little brain) is to make the subject
something that you would want to open and read.  (Why they think I am
willing to wade through 20+k of marketting drivel is beyond me...) Much of
these ideas are similar to direct mail marketting campaigns, but without
the graphical or ethical content.

The idea behind marketing spam is that people are more willing to buy your
product if you spit in their face first or attack it to rocks and throw it
through their windows.

Now all that needs to happen if for these people to get a connection to
the clue server and figure out that such actions are not helping them any.

[Clue #1 for Spammers:  If you have to hide the source of your message,
maybe there is something seriously wrong with how you are delivering it.]