Where Is Spam When You Want It?

Sean writes "In a complete twist to what everybody else is trying to do these days, I need to attract spam to an e-mail address for a research survey I am conducting. I have submitted a few articles to a handful of Usenet groups, and I have signed up to some general mailing lists but so far I have nothing to show for it. How come by personal account gets 100+ spam each day yet when I try to find it I get nothing? Where should I post my address so that it attracts spam?"

Some options...

[mgcsinc]

Register with every "reputable" company with a "privacy policy" you can find, and make purchases with them. Register a domain with the addy. Put the addy on tons of those little fill out cards that you have to mail in from magazines for free this, free that. Buy subscriptions to tons of Pr0n sites with the addy. Instead of usenet, post on several pay or exclusive product-support forums, where spam-runners can be assured of sure-fire hits. Damn! It's expensive to acquire SPAM!

Post it here

[dhawton]

Me as well as other slashdotters will send you some of ours. We don't want it (I hope).

same problem

[steveargonman]

I had to get on some spam lists for an experiment as well. I signed up for everything you could imagine and recieve less spam on that account than my other accounts.

Murphy's Law part2...

[Jonin893]

If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.

We all know that the Spam won't show up if you want it. That's against the very nature of spam.

All annoying things always happen every time except for the one time you try and prove the phenomenon to a non-beliver. Well known fact.

Good luck at finding the spam (wow, I never thought I'd have say that.)

a sure method

[Alpha_Nerd]

Give it to some of your friends and relatives, soon you'll recieve 20 or so joke chain letters every day...

Re:same problem

[Oestergaard]

Write a HOWTO and put your real e-mail address in there.

Worked for me ;)

Change your thesis.

[CGP314]

New research shows spam no longer a problem!

Research Survey

[becktabs]

"Research Survey" = getting back at evil ex-girlfriend.

Or in other words...

[chimpo13]

Hi, I'm pissed off at someone and would love to get them bombarded with spam. No, I don't think that'll work on slashdot. Better say "research" instead of "pissed off". Yeah, that should work.

Ask Slashdot

[roystgnr]

"My deadbeat roommate has pissed me off once too often. On a completely unrelated note, I'm looking for ways to attract lots of spam to an email address for... er... research. Yes, research sounds plausible."

try this one

[SHEENmaster]

[e-mail] [mailto]

Re:Domain registry

[dboyles]

Amazing. Even after you made your millions from underground African money transfers, you still find time to post to Slashdot. What character! I can see why Igwe Emanuel thought you good enough to do business with.

I, on the other hand, will be out of here as soon as the transaction is complete. So long, suckers!

Re:Hotmail.

[caferace]

Maybe your girlfriend is pretty serious about you getting a penis enlargement and some viagra. Ever think about that, smart guy?

I Have Your Answer

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

Where should I post my address so that it attracts spam?

How about the front page of Slashdot?!? That ought to help you out a bit.

/me shakes his head.

Re:Change your thesis - Decode the encryption.

[refactored]

Have you noticed that a lot of spam these days has encrypted messages attached to it?

Looks like....

wplqc r uesdpq
y tq
vr
wcvixv qaowp
go xz
hfcjlf o ejni hxkqgftfhdw xgm
ct edtt
onzfkwsp gui

I have been collecting them as I spot them, when I have enough samples and enough time I will have a bash at decrypting them.

So if you want to add a flourish to your thesis, you can also figure out what they are using the encrypted text for. (Probably some sort of tracking to measure success of campaigns.) I will happily send you my collection of spam + encrypted messages.

It did occurred to me that if you were a distributed illegal group that wanted to communicate in a way that was untracable from you to the component cells, you could do worse than sending out spam + encrypted message to millions of random addresses, some of which are your cells.

Re: a sure method

[EinarH]

I am only recieving wicked screensavers from my friends you insensitive clod!

Re:Change your thesis - Decode the encryption.

[Fesh]

That's what they want you to think!

*looks left, looks right*

How are Porn sites NOT my friend?

[GoofyBoy]

Your first 30 minutes alone on the Internet should tell anyone that.

Be conservative

[Badanov]

Respond to liberal outbursts on Slashdot with a conservative counterpoint and you will start getting penis implant and virus emails from leftists who post here.

Re:Change your thesis - Decode the encryption.

[orthogonal]

That isn't any sort of encrypted text. It is simply a (pathetic) attempt of evading filters...

You insensitive clod!

You've ruined the poor boy's dream!

Just think of the hours of fun he could have had "cracking" the "code".

Just think of the elaborate code -- and equally elaborate conspiracy behind it -- he might have created in a desperate obsession to make his data fit his theory!

It could have been a new formularization to rival the Illuminati [tripod.com], Ancient Astronauts [daniken.com], secret codes in the Bible [biblecodedigest.com], or some other tortuous, contrived theory! Why, he might even have constructed the ultimate conspirarcy theory, a religion [scientology.org]!

But no! You had to cruelly disillusion him. And rob us of the fruit(iness) of his labors.

For shame!

Re:Outlook...

[GloomE]

No. If you wander into a chemistry lab and out of curiosity suck down a random test tube..... is the Lab Manager responsible?

Re:Outlook...

[GloomE]

That would be an example of Darwinism. It's frustrating that we expend resources to reverse a system (survival of the survivable) that has benefitted us for so long. Our reality has changed somewhat from 40,000 years ago, but then so has what it means to be viable and what it take to survive. I don't see why a plaintif's terminal stupidity should be a good argument, although I'm sure it has been.

Re:Outlook...

[Anonymous Coward]

the slashdot effect comes to your in box

All you need to do

[Simon Garlick]

Register a domain with Verisign, and put your target address as a contact for that domain.

Re:Symantic Police here

[dosius]

And while we're at it, it's semantic ;)

-uso.

Re:Outlook...

[digidave]

Knowlingly install a system from the manufacturer's CD and running it on the Internet? The horror! The horror!

On Slashdot!?!

[ProfessionalCookie]

I don't have a girlfriend, YIC.

Re:FREE pr0n

[evanbd]

Every time? how often do you do this, anyway?

Re:Outlook...

[Anne Thwacks]

He could always blame it on the kids watching "War Games"...