I decided to try to see how quickly a new e-mail address starts getting spam. Specifically, a new clean address — one that has not had ANY contact with any organization.
Let me explain:
Spammers try to tell you that “You’re receiving this message because you signed up with one of our business partners” or some such nonsense. I think that’s bull.
To test my theory, here’s what I did: I created an e-mail address for a fictious person at one of my domains.
That address has never been used to sign up for anything — not a newsletter, not even a post on any site. The whole idea is that there is no way in heck anyone can say that the addressed established some sort of relationship.
To get the ball rolling, used that address to put a single post on a single Usenet message board (a G-rated one, in fact). It’s just a “hello” and the address.
Now we wait.
Here’s the cool part. Mail to that address will automatically be posted to a Web page: Go to www.kantor.com/spam to get to it.
I’ve set up a system to check that address regularly, and automatically post any messages it receives.
My bet is nothing will happen for a while. (If so, I may post a couple of more Usenet messages or put the address on an unlinked page on my site.)
But I also bet that some spammer’s system will scour that Usenet group and pick up the address. And once one spammer has it, lots will.
And if and when messages appear, there is no way that the sender can possibly, in any way, shape, or form, claim that someone requested information using it, period. There’s no defense.
So let’s see what happens over the next few months. Check in every now and again to www.kantor.com/spam and see if anything’s appeared.
