# SPAM question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 12, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944 "2003-10-12T02:19:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944/1 "2003-10-12T02:19:13Z")

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I don’t have a big problem with SPAM. I get 15-25 e-mails a day and it’s no big thing to just trash the excess. Spammers gotta make a living too. YMMV

My question… what makes them think that if they pre-date the e-mail, I’ll be more likely to open it. IF I opened something from someone I didn’t know (I don’t… ever) it sure as hell wouldn’t be something dated 12-31-69! :rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944/2 "2003-10-12T02:29:00Z")

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WAG: an attempt to somehow bypass any filters you may have installed.

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**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944/3 "2003-10-12T05:05:05Z")

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To bury it in your Inbox. If you have your incoming mail arranged by date/time and you’re manually deleting, you’re not going to see the misdated email. Once you’re done, your email program will still show one unread message. So if you hit Next Message, it’ll automatically go to the misdated email, and you’ll see it.

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**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944/4 "2003-10-12T08:14:25Z")

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[www.mailwasher.net](http://www.mailwasher.net)

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**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-question/206944/5 "2003-10-12T11:38:59Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> We [Hormel Foods] do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of the word “spam” as a trademark and to the use of our product image in association with that term. **Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters.**

from [the SPAM website](http://www.spam.com/ci/ci_in.htm)