# If you wish to be withdra wn from our - l-i- s-t, **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 2, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974 "2002-06-02T02:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/1 "2002-06-02T02:37:19Z")
the scumbag spammer send me this spam with the following removal instruction: If you wish to be withdra wn from our - l-i- s-t, ple ase email [kate84@stepmail.com](mailto:kate84@stepmail.com) What a F$#@en @$$#\*!{. Spam I can begrudgingly accept but this makes me what to hunt this person down and (well lets not go there). I would ask you waht spam filter rules you have and was going to post mine but I can’t copy and paste the whole thing and it’s unfair to ask you to do the same. So Instead I ask what is the method you use in catching spam. I browse the spam email and look for common words that are unlikely to be used in normal email - for the above one I used ‘if you wish to be’. About 1/2 are focused on the removal line the rest on stuff like ‘money back garrentty’ (I know I misspelled that but you get the idea) What methods do you use to block spam? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/2 "2002-06-02T04:11:35Z")
I have my “real” address, supplied by my internet provider, which only friends, relatives and co-workers have, and I created a hotmail address which I use for everyting else (including my SDMB profile). I apply whatever spam-blocking mechanisms hotmail has in place, and just delete whatever gets through. For the most part, I supply a fake address whenever possible (I’m not sure who has [bryan@hotmail.com](mailto:bryan@hotmail.com), but he’s sure getting a lot of mail meant for me). ---
**Author:** ![slowhand53](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@slowhand53](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowhand53)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/3 "2002-06-02T05:04:15Z")
see if your isp will install this: > **[Apache SpamAssassin: Welcome](https://spamassassin.apache.org/)** > > Apache SpamAssassin is the #1 Open Source anti-spam platform giving system administrators a filter to classify email and block spam. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/4 "2002-06-02T05:33:53Z")
> [@](#): > > For the most part, I supply a fake address whenever possible (I’m not sure who has [bryan@hotmail.com](mailto:bryan@hotmail.com), but he’s sure getting a lot of mail meant for me). Oh yeah, I feel really sorry for poor [JoeBlow@hotmail.com](mailto:JoeBlow@hotmail.com). If he ever finds me out, I’m in big trouble. To be nice, I think I’ll start typing “[qwecfhuiopnj@hotmail.com](mailto:qwecfhuiopnj@hotmail.com)” or something else bogus and suitably unique, when the situation warrants. ---
**Author:** ![IGJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/igjoe/32/5420_2.png) [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/5 "2002-06-02T05:52:07Z")
I use the same tactic as **Bryan** does: I have a seperate Hotmail account just for spam. I’ve been using this system for over seven years, and up until last month I’ve never gotten a single spam message. Just recently , though, I’ve started to get daily spam sent to my real email addy. GAAAHHHHH!!! I have _no_ idea how my real address got on a spam list, as I only give it out to actual people. I have a couple of rules that focus on the removal line, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/6 "2002-06-02T06:01:48Z")
Worse yet, I regularly get spam in _Korean_! I don’t speak Korean, have no connection to or anything but a passing interest in Korea, and the last time I used the address it’s being sent to regularly, it was on a miniatures mailing list. How can I block it if I can’t read the senders’ address or domain?! ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/7 "2002-06-02T18:20:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr Pud \* > > I have _no_ idea how my real address got on a spam list, as I only give it out to actual people. I have a couple of rules that focus on the removal line, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. Could be one of the actual people unwittingly gave your email to the spammers. Has anyone ever sent you an e-card, CrushLink, one of those “email this to a friend!” notes or anything like that? That will do it. Anyway, aside from my ISP’s server-side spam filters, I also filter out anything where the “To:” or “CC:” lines don’t contain my address. I don’t know how it gets to me if my address isn’t in the header, but it seems that spam is generally like that. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/8 "2002-06-03T04:36:35Z")
Your address could have been in the BCC: field. BCC addresses do not appear to the recipient. BCC stands for “Blind Carbon Copy”, the anonymous version of CC, “Carbon Copy”. This shows, among other things, how long these abbreviations have been around… ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/9 "2002-06-03T06:12:25Z")
I have a separate subdomain of my main domain set up, and have it set to accept any recipient at that subdomain. My main domain is [fathom.org](http://fathom.org), the subdomain is [opalspam.fathom.org](http://opalspam.fathom.org). When I go to a new site, I use a unique address. Say I go to [SpamRUs.com](http://SpamRUs.com), I’ll use [spamrus@opalspam.fathom.org](mailto:spamrus@opalspam.fathom.org). All mail to \*@opalspam.fathom.org is sorted into its own folder and pretty much ignored. However, if I look at it and see mail addressed to [somecompany@opalspam.fathom.org](mailto:somecompany@opalspam.fathom.org) coming from Farm Porn Buffet, then I know that somecompany sold my address to Farm Porn Buffet. It is rather interesting to see which places are the worst, actually. ---
**Author:** ![blur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@blur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blur)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-be-withdra-wn-from-our-l-i-s-t/111974/10 "2002-06-03T07:33:15Z")
Can you tell us whose been the worst Opal?