# Spammers have evolved into an even lower form of life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927 "2000-07-26T17:00:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/1 "2000-07-26T17:00:40Z")
The _bulk mail feature_ in Hotmail was working like a charm for a while there; hundreds of unwanted incoming emails were being dumped into my bulk mail folder weekly and I never had to look at one of them. But now it looks like the spammers have figured out a way to get around that. I have started getting an occasional piece of spam here & there for the usual fad diets & get rich quick schemes. It’s only two or three each day but I fear it’s only a matter of time before everybody figures out how to avoid the **inbox filter** and choke my mail box with garbage again. They seem to be doing this in a couple of ways: (1) They mass mail to [specific\_user\_names]@hotmail.com which defeats the filter, or (2) they use the bcc: (blind carbon copy) feature when they send the mail. I’m not sure how this gets around the bulk mail filter but it seems to be able to do just that. I have been taking the additional step of adding each sender’s email address to my _blocked senders_ list but this is getting tedious because yesterday I added the following sender to my list: Free\_Caesar\_Salad\_Recipe\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_TXDRD But today I got the same piece of junk from Free\_Caesar\_Salad\_Recipe\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_TXDRD (a few more underscores in the address) These don’t even look like email addresses. I think the next step is to complain to [abuse@hotmail.com](mailto:abuse@hotmail.com) but I doubt if there is much they will be able to since spammers generate new accounts faster than hotmail can terminate the old ones. I know somebody is going to chime in with the unhelpful & unwanted advice of “get a real email account”, so let me just say that I already have one with my ISP but I would like to have a hotmail account too, it comes in very useful at times. Anybody else making use of their Bulk Mail feature with hotmail? ---
**Author:** ![wacky\_ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/58956e/32.png) [@wacky\_ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wacky_ninja)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/2 "2000-07-26T17:04:02Z")
Yahoo has the same feature, and sometimes I also get spam in my regular inbox. I think one of my smart-ass friends decided to put me on some porn list and I keep getting messages form people like bambi, and the heading is HOT NEW XXXPICS! i’ve blocked quite a few addresses, but they keep on coming anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2000, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/3 "2000-07-26T17:09:32Z")
YES!!! Supid spam making it past the inbox potector, block list, \* and \* filters. Gah! ---
**Author:** ![Erika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@Erika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erika)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/4 "2000-07-26T17:20:08Z")
Yeah, it’s annoying, but I set up my hotmail account for that exact purpose - that the spam went there instead of my _real_ e-mail account. So I usually give out my hotmail account when I need a real account or want to actually _recieve_ whichever mailing list I’m signing up for, rather than my real one. So, yeah, people are getting more inventive, and it takes the fixes longer to come out than the problems, but it’s dealwithable. Or you decide it’s NOT, and you get a new account. ---
**Author:** ![SkySlash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SkySlash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkySlash)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/5 "2000-07-26T17:21:11Z")
I added both of those exact pieces of mail o my blocked senders list also. That and $5 from Sally on a MLM thing and some lose 5 pound in 30 seconds or something like that. I hate Spam… -SS ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2000, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/6 "2000-07-26T17:39:01Z")
I’m like Erika. I also set up my hotmail to deflect garbage mail FROM my ISP addy to my hotmail. Only certain people have my ISP addy, and no spam there yet. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/7 "2000-07-27T12:57:52Z")
I got an invite to go see some “hot sexy sluts” this morning from [2ncyxj5wtk43@gte.net](mailto:2ncyxj5wtk43@gte.net). Of course I reported this to [abuse@gte.net](mailto:abuse@gte.net), but the automated response I received was less than encouraging. I also casually mentioned this thread in my report, in the hopes that somebody a little higher up might chime in. Howz that for naive? ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2000, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-have-evolved-into-an-even-lower-form-of-life/26927/8 "2000-07-27T14:06:15Z")
Lord, yes. I use it everytime I order something from a website, which I do a lot. I don’t care how much some sites insist they don’t sell your info, it happens. Even the almighty [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) does it. I know because my sister-in-law placed an order there–her first and only web transaction–and immediately was inundated with spam. It couldn’t have come from anyplace else.