Jeffry Houser's Blog - SPAM

Phone SPAM

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:52:00 -0400

Why doesn't the National Republican Congresional Committee have the follow the national 'do not call' registry. I just got a call with a pre-recorded message about Chris Murphy. I've gotten it before, but this is the first time I listented to through the end. Since it was a pre-recorded message, you can't say 'put me on your do not call' list. They mentioned that this message was not approved by any senator or anything, but was sponsored by the NRCC. A bit upset about the call (and such calls in general), I jumped over to the web site at the end of the message. The first thing I see is a quiz on the home page, asking what democrats will do if they take control of congress. The answers are right along the lines of the slander-type campaign ads that you see on TV. The whole site seems to echo that sort of sentiment. It is frustrating that the focal point of the world is always "anti-you" instead of "pro-me". When it comes to politics, I want to know what you'll do for me. Not what your opponent is going to do wrong. I just called up the NRCC and left a message asking to be put on their "do not call list" although I do not expect any response. I wonder if goverment entities are exempt. Is the NRCC a goverment entity?

More on the Battlecats

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:19:00 -0400

I had previously complained about the Battlecats (A CT local band) refusing to remove me from their mailing list. I thought their initial response of 'no' was kind of funny. Until I realized they didn't remove me. This is the most recent thread:


sorry...can't do it

>
> Because I am trying to minimize the amount of non-work related 
> e-mails I receive. 

>> At 08:27 PM 10/4/2006, you wrote:
>> 
>> but why?

>>>
>>>Yes

>>>>At 07:53 PM 10/4/2006, you wrote:
>>>>are you serious?


>>>>>
>>>>>Yes, I do

>>>>>>At 07:28 AM 10/4/2006, you wrote: 
>>>>>>you don't REALLY want to be removed from our list...



>>>>>>>I was actually serious last time.  Could you remove me?  

At 06:01 PM 10/3/2006, you wrote: 
[initial message here]

My amusement has run dry. They are in direct violation of Yahoo's Spam and abuse Policy (Item 7). I just filed out a complaint against them using Yahoo's system. This is the contents of my complaint:


 I had originally signed up for this user's mailing list (A band-related e-mail) a while ago.  They have refused to remove me after repeated requests, which is a violation of item 7 of Yahoo's Spam and Abuse policy.  The previous message body [the message body comes before this comment on the yahoo form] is the most recent e-mail I recieved from them.  Following it is the full thread where I asked to be removed from the list and they refused.

I have marked the Battlecats as spam in my spam filter program. Unfortunately, I do not expect Yahoo to do anything about it.

I'm listed in SpamCop

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:09:00 -0400

Is it time for a new host? Spam Cop Listing for my main e-mail address

IM spam or not?

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:26:00 -0400


[13:22] messenger@microsoft.com: Important service announcement: Because of a recent system update, you must change the e-mail address that you use to sign in to Windows Live(TM) Messenger. Until you change your e-mail address, you won't be able to use Windows Live(TM) Messenger. 
 
To change your e-mail address and find out more about this system update, go to http://support.microsoft.com/gp/Messenger/en

The specified link really did (does) go to the Microsoft web site, but it gives an invalid page error. Trillian crashed a few minutes after I got this IM. I booted it right back up and am not having any problems (That includes logging into MSN).

Deleting Spam

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 13:03:00 -0400

I just went through the Trash folder in my in-box and deleted 210,573K (~205 MB) worth of spam messages. I do this a few times a year. I haven't done it since February, so all these spam messages were recieved between February 1st and August 16th. After deletion, my e-mail folder took up 855 megabytes on my hard drive, estimating that ~19% of all e-mail was spam messages. I believe the size of my e-mail folder is inflated due to orphaned (and valid) attachments> According to K9, 70% of all e-mails I recieve are SPAM and it detects them with a reate of 99.09% accuracy. 99% accuracy still means that I have to classify ~3-5 e-mails a day as SPAM. There must be a better solution.

Can you remove me from your list?

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:22:00 -0400

I am on an e-mailing list for a local band called the Battlecats. Far Cry Fly did a gig with them at one point. They have fantastic stage presence, and a unique sound. The band is a lot of fun. Yet, I don't get out to shows much any more, because it keeps me from being awake during normal business hours. So, in response to their latest mailing, I said:


Hi Battlecats,

Could you remove me from your list? 

thanks!

And they responded with:

no

I'm not quite sure how to respond. I'm assuming this is just an obnoxious response and they will remove me. I won't be upset unless I continue to get e-mails from them.

No more trackbacks

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:33:00 -0400

I turned off trackbacks. I was getting too much SPAM.

eBay Scam

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Tue, 30 May 2006 10:52:00 -0400


Dear reboog, 

I am the eBay seller of ***PRIMERA BRAVO PRO CD/DVD DUPLICATOR & PRINTER *** item number 8812478135.  You expressed interest in my item by bidding, however the auction has ended with another eBay member as the high bidder. Because the winner of my auction didn't respond to my emails after winning the auction, I want to issue a second chance offer to you. There are a lot of bidders who bid on the auction for fun and I hope you are serious buyer and we can make a clear deal. If you accept my second chance offer we will be eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection. To purchase my item please reply me. 

P.S. If you are interested i will wait your reply asap.

Thank you

"Gee" thinks I. "That sounds potentially promising. But, I don't want to get taken for a bunch of money outside the eBay system." Second Chance offers might be legit, according to the eBay regulations. However, this 'second chance offer' was recieved at my personal e-mail; not through the eBay system. I pointed my browser to eBay and searches on the item number 8812478135. Make note of the aucion winner (drm2001). I click the feedback rating for the seller. The auction winner left this feedback: HONEST PERSON" "BEST TRANSACTION EVER" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA That doesn't sound like someone who didn't respond. I click "Left for Others" to see if the seller left feedback for the buyer. Yep, they did. extremely fast payment; great transaction; thank you! Either the seller is an expert scammer in some manner; or the person who contacted me, above, is not the seller at all. I'm not going to pursue this.

More om Gem Resources

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 04 May 2006 12:23:00 -0400

I'm working locally, but accessing a remote database. It is acting horrendously slow, which allows me time to write this. As such; I have time to write this. Frequent readers here may remember my complaints about Gem Resourcing and the screen scraping and e-mail I recieved from them. Generally, I try not to shrink to colorful language, so it's odd I actually swore (even in writing). Anyway, I just recieved a second unsolicited e-mail from them.


Jeff - thanks for the wonderful words - you appear to be very professional.  However you obviously do not understand that I made a boo boo and sent the wrong letter.  As a recruiting firm we create different letters depending on how we introduce ourselves and the position we are currently searching on.  When I realized I had the wrong letter, I contacted, what I thought was the President of the primary Users Group.  In this letter I offered a personal apology to anyone offended.  Further I had asked this person if there was a way I could distribute this - I was later told that he would handle this instead.
    Following is the letter I wrote. 
    
    John yes I did.  And please note that I sent the wrong letter.  Most everyone who knows me speaks of me as heartfelt and sincere.  If you speak to anyone who I    have offended please offer my apologies!  If they want one personally I will offer this as well.  If you would like I can create a letter and you can distribute it.
    Thank You for your kind and informative communication.
 
  
Lucian Mone' - Senior Recruiter
GEM Resourcing
"going the extra mile"
303-768-0918
lou@gemresourcing.com
www.gemresourcing.com

I have not contacted them in any way. I wonder if the wonderful words he is speaking of are the ones from my previous blog post? There was quite a buzz about this among other User Group Managers; so I assume someone had contacted him and made him aware of what he did, and why it was 'wrong'. Of course, then he turns around and does the same thing, although at least this time he also scraped my name off the UG listing. I'm amused. I wonder if any of this could count as slander? I don't think so (as I've stated nothing but fact and opinion), but...

Don't work with Gem Resourcing

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:44:00 -0400

If you were to go to the Macromedia web site and search for user groups in Connecticut, you might find out that I'm a User Group Manager. You might also discover that I don't use my regular e-mail address (for that that know it), i use an alternate one. When I receive e-mails from that address it is either someone genuinely interested, or a spammer. This is the e-mail I received at it today:


Thank you for allowing me to take a moment of your time.  Your resume was in our database and it appears you might be a good fit for an opportunity we are actively seeking to fill.  One of our valuable clients is currently adding a Senior Actionscript Programmer to their team.

 

Our client builds a commercial software application targeted at the insurance industry.  Their success stems from a track record that includes decades of experience deploying reliable and well-built applications.  The solution they provide typically replaces legacy applications.  Currently they are re-architecting their product to a J2EE architecture and are in the process of growing their team. 

 

This individual is going to design the user interface components and deliver a superior user interface for their application.  They are using Actionscript 1.0 for the main application and Flex for the web components of the enterprise application.  The ideal candidate will have a solid object oriented development background along with at least 2 years development experience with Actionscript.  Strengths and a passion around user interface is a key success factor for this position.

 

If you find that the timing is not right for you to pursue this opportunity or happen to know others who might be interested, please feel free to forward this email and/or my contact information.  I would certainly appreciate any referrals!  

 

Please contact me once you have had an opportunity to review the position description and let me know your interest level.  Thank you in advance for your time and consideration and I look forward to speaking with you regarding this position.

 

Warmest regards,

 
Lucian Mone' - Senior Recruiter
GEM Resourcing
"going the extra mile"
303-768-0918
lou@gemresourcing.com
www.gemresourcing.com

This person obviously has never seen my resume. If he had, he would not have been contacting me via this e-mail address, or for an ActionScript position. After much careful consideration, I crafted this response:


Mr Mone,

 You are full of shit!

But, I decided against sending it because then he would have my real e-mail address. It feels good to vent sometimes, though.

PR Quarterback SPAM Update

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 15:51:00 -0400

A while back I wrote about a local company that had started spamming me. I believed they had bought my address (and I assume others) from a third party company to add me to their mailing list. The reason I noticed is because I was already registered on their list, and then started recieving it twice. I e-mailed them to explain what had happened, and suggested they remove me (and all purchased e-mail addresses) from their list. I recieved a second set of duplicate e-mails in their next round of mailings and contacted them again. Yesterday I got the third mailing since my initial e-mail. Apparently my 'rogue' e-mail address has been removed from their mailing, so as expected I only recieved it once. They did not contact me, so I am unaware if they took any of my other suggestions to heart.

Robin Ryan

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:47:00 -0400

Robin Ryan is a career counseler who has written for Net Temps in the past. I e-mailed her in response to one of the articles that she had written. The article is located here. I thought it was a pretty pointless article, and did not address the question of how to dodge the "previous salary question" I got a nice, respectable response from her personal assistant that told me to buy Robin's Salary negotiation CD for the info. Apparently, they took our correspondance as permission to put me on their spam newsletter. My initial response to them was not nearly as nice as my response to PR Quarterback. I said:

I sent you an e-mail in response to an article on net-temps. I did not
give you permission to add me to your SPAM list. [insert your favorite
string of explicatives here]

Get me off this list.

I sent it to both their AOL address and the addres on the Robin Ryan web site. Both of them bounced. I just recieved my second newsletter from her.

PR Quarterback SPAM

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:22:00 -0400

I just sent this e-mail to Your PR Department Mr Dresner, My name is Jeffry Houser, a CT business owner. I believe we met at the Connecticut Business Connections meeting at Connecticut Culinary Institute at the end of last year (I believe December). If memory serves me, you were presenting to the group. If it was not yourself, then I met one of your employees. Shortly after that meeting, I started receiving the PR Quarterback newsletter. I was added to this list without permission. Adding someone to a mailing list if they do not request it is considered bad netiquette. Unsolicited e-mail is called spam, and sending it can label you as a spammer. I'm sure you know what SPAM is, and receive your fare share. At the time it raised an eyebrow, but I decided against complaining, since I found the newsletter semi-interesting. It has recently come to my attention, that a separate e-mail address of mine has been added to your spam newsletter list, also unsolicited. This e-mail address is "eventmanagement@x.x". I'm sure that you will remove this secondary address from your list immediately, and I appreciate it. Since we have met, I have adopted an interesting habit for discovering companies that use my e-mail address and other contact information. When I sign up for their services, I provide an e-mail address which includes their domain. "eventmanagement@x.x" refers back to eventmanagement.org . I joined their web site to register for a Business Expo earlier this year. Now I know that Event Management in West Hartford does not respect my privacy or safeguard the information I provide to them. As one business owner to another, I strongly suggest that you consider following these steps: a) Remove the e-mail address "eventmanagement@x.x" from your mailing list. ( Thank You! ) b) Implement a double check verification process before someone can sign up on your mailing list. That way, when someone tries to add an e-mail address to your newsletter, they will receive a confirmation. If they don't confirm, they don't get added. This is the defacto standard today. I'd hate for someone, like myself but with less scruples, to sign up 1,000 of their closest friends onto your newsletter. In the end you may have fewer subscribers, but you'll have a more attentive audience. If this makes no sense, your IT staff should be able to give you a more in depth explanation. c) Remove all e-mail addresses that you received from the "Event Management . org" company from your newsletter. I did a quick search of my SPAM folder and discovered I have received a bit of SPAM at that e-mail address over the past 6 months. Yours was unique in that it was not immediately flagged as such, probably because I was already marked it as legit. If you feel the need to discuss any of this further, please feel free to contact me. I understand that your time is precious, and will know that you've acknowledged this letter when the next newsletter comes out and I receive only one copy.