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End User security spam

Spam not Spam

I have recently started corresponding with Randy Abrams of anti virus company www.eset.com.  He has commented on some of my posts in the past.  He offered this postulation today:

“Sometimes I receive spam from legitimate companies. They shouldn’t be spamming me, but this isn’t the Viagra, Rolex, and other run of the mill spammers I am talking about… these are generally IT companies.

So, I am considering automatically subscribing these spammers to Industry News with an email indicating that they have been subscribed and can choose to opt out. Your thoughts. Good idea? Too good for them?   Give it a try?”

My standard response to legitimate spammers is to reply to them asking whether they have read www.trefor.net?  It seems only fair.  They are sending me unsolicited mail.  It’s amazing how many of them then do read the blog,  I get quite a lot of positive feedback this way.  I’m sure some of them are reading this post now 🙂 .  I have a fairly relaxed view on life.  We are all trying to earn a living.  We all need to be friends within sensible bounds.

Trefor Davies

By Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

3 replies on “Spam not Spam”

How come, Trefor, that we are always told not to reply to spam. I thought it connected them to one’s computer by some devious means.
Are you, somehow, not prone to such attacks when you respond to spam?
Mind you, I don’t have my own website for spammers to view!!
Keep smiling

Les,
This is actually a great question. In reality there are two types of spam, both typically unwanted.

The spam that is caught by spam catching software is typically the type of email that is trying to sell you viagra, or asking you to collect the prize you have won in a Nigerian bank etc. This type of spam is sent out to millions of people and anti spam organisations scan millions of emails to spot trends. They see that such spam comes from a few ip addresses and as well as binning these emails quickly move to blacklisting rogue ip addresses so that they can’t be used to spam. This spam is dangerous to reply to as doing so lets them know that you are there.

The other type of spam is that sent by legitimate organisations, also trying to sell you something. In my case this typically comes from recruitment agencies or other vendors selling technology related services and “widgets”. These people are not criminals, they are trying to earn an honest living. They are also able to read my blog so I consider it fair game to point them to the blog. After all they would otherwise be missing out 🙂 .

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