Spam
vs Junkmail, by Vena McGrath
How
could I ever have conceived of anything worse than
the myriads of junk mail that is stuffed in my letterbox,
thrown in my garden, tossed on my driveway and dropped
at my front door? Do I look at any of it? Rarely.
I'm one of those people who hate shopping, and yes,
I am a female and I'm told one of a kind because I
don't like shopping and I don't like window shopping
and I most definitely don't like leaflets and the
like dropped around my haven for me to dispose of.
Seems to me if these stores have so much money to
waste on advertising why don't they lower their prices
instead and do away with the junk mail? However, one
of my sons loves junk mail so I guess some mothers
do have them.
I've
emptied the letterbox, picked up the papers from the
driveway, the garden, from around the front door and
tossed them all in the recycle bin. I unlock my front
doors, enter my haven and sigh for there's no junk
mail lurking inside. Or is there? Oh yes, there certainly
is but of a different kind, a sneaky kind that I can't
see until I turn on my computer and download my mail.
Oh oh, here it comes flooding in. It's even worse
than the junk mail because there are some pretty disgusting
pictures that greet me with some of my spam mail.
And since when did I need viagra pills or penis enlargement
creams? The schoolgirl pornography mail really makes
my blood boil, as do the hundreds of other pornographic
pictures that I receive. I got into the habit for
a while of sending them on to my Internet provider
and asked the question 'why'? 'I pay $65 a month to
be online and have all this unsolicited filth invade
my life?' Of course they didn't bother answering but
perhaps I did have a little bit to do with them closing
down a particular port that was allowing a lot of
this garbage through. Since it closed I haven't received
any of that type of mail. However, now I'm inundated
by unsolicited mail trying to sell me goods that usually
are for the USA market only. When is someone going
to realise that .au mean Australia? When/if they ever
do my spam mail will almost be zero. Perhaps it is
too much to expect that someone might have the brains
out there to work that out.
There
are so many 'get rich' schemes flooding the email
system and they are fast taking over from the other
type of spam. I have to admit getting sucked into
a couple of them myself only to find all I managed
to buy was a book of 'how to do it' with no guarantees
of success unless your worked very hard. What a joke!
Another form of misleading advertising directed at
people who very often are housebound and spend a lot
of time on the Internet and grab hold of anything
that could perhaps make their lives better by bringing
in the cash. I was caught with an envelope stuffing
scam and a few other assorted rip-offs before I realised
that all I was doing was buying junk mail disguised
as spam!
"Become
An Instant Millionaire. I did it, so can you"
screams out the headline. It seems plausible too,
considering how many people now surf the net but I
live in hope that the spam mailers are shooting themselves
in the foot by flooding our email systems with their
junk. No wonder the Internet is so slow for anyone
with dialup; the lines must all be flooded continuously
with mail going around the world and most of it misdirected.
I could conservatively estimate that from ten spams
I receive probably only one would be relevant for
Australia, so part of my evenings are spent disposing
of junk mail off my computer that I should never have
received.
Back
to the claims of how easy it is to become an 'Instant
Millionaire'. It appears there are a couple of 'gentlemen'
working very hard at spamming, both boasting to be
noted authors - authors of what we may ask. Scams
via spam. Mr Abrahams has started sending me his spam
and I'm getting very good at the left foot kick too.
He and his cohorts are making their millions, if they
are, by flogging their so called best selling books
to people like me, specially aimed at the people at
home wishing they could make money from using their
computers. Well, come up with an idea like Mr Abrahams
and his co-conspirators have and you will be laughing
all the way to the bank because some mothers do have
them.
Another
form of spam that riles me is the people involved
in horoscopes and fortune telling. This is a special
interest of mine, I love reading my 'horrorscopes'
as I call them and often go surfing around sites sussing
out someone to tell me I'm going to be rich, beautiful,
young, desirable, in love and loved etc etc. But be
warned, once you purchase something from one of those
sites you will never be left alone. The spam mail
comes fast and furious and always with the line 'if
you don't act now you will miss out on this amazing
chance of good luck and fortune that will only come
once - you have only twenty-one days left to take
up this offer'. Now I didn't take up the offer, and
strange as it is, the person concerned who I first
became tangled up with, manages to work magic spells
once the twenty-one days are up and miraculously I
have another twenty-one days grace to act in or sometimes
even more days! And so comes all the spam mail continuously,
trying hard to suck me in to outlay some more dollars
for some more rubbish. And to top it off suddenly
they have all these friends who have this wonderful
book, this amazing spell that you just won't make
it without, oh and free gifts too if you take up the
option. They all give you the options that if you
don't wish to receive any further mail, 'click here'.
How many times have you clicked here only to find
the link doesn't work? Or even worse, if you do access
the site all of a sudden you receive a barrage of
other mail from sites you have never visited, never
heard of. All wanting to sell you something give you
something, and yes, most of them for USA residents
only!
Oh
and the site that offers you a free psychic session.
You spend 15 minutes going through the various steps
to find at the end to get an answer you have to sign
on the dotted line and yes, you can pay by mastercard,
visa, bankcard, cheque etc etc. Now that is a scam!
I
even rang a dialup provider to request for my email
address to be changed to try and stop the spam it
was letting in, and I was refused. So I closed my
account with them and went with another provider and
I had another email address. So don't play games boys,
let's get real. People pay for a service for an online
connection, they have the right to change their email
address or totally close one that is a problem, or
if they don't then it's high time they did. My advice
to anyone meeting a brick wall from a provider is
to do like I do with any type of provider of a service
I pay for - close your account and go elsewhere. It's
time we all stood up to be counted and time we stopped
allowing the 'big brothers' of this world from ruling
our very existence. We are lucky to live in a world
where there is competition for our dollars, and lots
of it. So do some searching and surfing, until you
find companies that value your patronage and treat
you with respect, as a client should be treated.
And
send all that spam to your Internet providers and
keep complaining. Flood their mailboxes; let's see
how they like it. Let them get rid of some spam junk
mail too, after all we should share the good and the
bad.
Links:
Interview
Vena
McGrath
Articles
When
will spam be banned, by Greg Tingle
The
net effect - 24th April 2004
ACCC
Joins Global Fight Against Spam - 30th January 2004
Junk
email laws apply - 6th April 2004
Dr
Spamlove - 1st May 2004
Paying
For email - 4th February 2004
Google
to offer free email in fight for web supremacy - 2nd
April 2004
On
the trail of the web scammers - 6th April 2004
The
Hall Of Shame
Legal
and Government Websites
ASIC
ACCC
ABA
Crime
Stoppers Australia
Australian
Federal Police
Federal
Bureau of Investigation
The
Internet Fraud Complaint Center
WHOA
- Working To Halt Online Abuse
Media
Man Australia
Legal
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