Spam

I've been getting assaulted by spammers again. This time is Paul Cabay, of utyx.com, who is apparently scanning my website for keyword and them sending email to various addresses asking me to link to him. I thought about telling him what he was doing wrong, but realised that that would merely confirm that the addresses he sent to were live.

This brings me back to the cardinal rule for spam: Never reply to a spammer. It just gives him an email address (yours) to sell. The only way spammers make money is:

• When idiots try and buy the Penis/Breast Enlargers, Florida Mortgages, or Brooklyn Bridges they're selling. Or maybe the Viagra, West African Ill Gotten Gains, or other nonsense.
• When people reply to a spam saying "Stop sending me spam!" or click on the unsubscribe address.

All either of those things do is confirm that the email address sent to is valid, and that the recipient reads spam! Never reply or respond. If possible, don't even open the spams, as they can have links which confirm that your email address read their spam. Then you'll just get more and more and more, etc.

It used to be that I'd encourage people to complain about spam. Now, that's a bad idea. The ISP (Internet Service Providers) who don't get rid of spammers straight away now are those who'll take anyone's money, whether it be:

• Penis Enlargement Spammers
• West African Fraud
• Cheap USA mortgages
• Paedophilia
• Bestiality

Or any of the other rubbish which fills your mailbox.

What you should do now is delete all the crap which comes in, and only complain about it if you really know how to read headers. If you use Outlook, you can't see all the headers anyway, so you can't complain effectively. You should make rules which put all email from people you know into a 'safe' folder, and all other email into a 'possible junk mail' folder, which should be read with extreme prejudice.