# The Government wants YOUR spam! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300 "2003-01-17T20:51:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/1 "2003-01-17T20:51:07Z")
I was just reading through an article on some spammers who were arrested for trying to sell international driver licsences through spam. I got to the second to last paragraph and saw this - > [@](#): > > Consumers are encouraged to forward spam to the FTC for analysis and possible prosecution. The agency currently collects roughly 75,000 spam messages a day, an aide said. So that’s it then eh? The gov’t wants us to forward all of our spam to the FTC? I’ve never heard this before. Am I the only one, or does no one know about this. I suspect no one else does, because I could just about double that number. ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/2 "2003-01-17T20:53:15Z")
Sure, write a post but no link eh? [http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/17/spam.scam.reut/index.html:smack:](http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/17/spam.scam.reut/index.html:smack:) ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/3 "2003-01-17T21:02:50Z")
I think you want… [http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/17/spam.scam.reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/17/spam.scam.reut/index.html) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/4 "2003-01-17T21:04:08Z")
I think, maybe, about once a week or so (that’s a conservative estimate) I get a single piece of spam out of the three email addresses I use. ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/5 "2003-01-17T21:05:56Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by little_bit \* > \*\*I think you want… > > [http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/17/spam.scam.reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/17/spam.scam.reut/index.html) > > 😃 \*\* ::sigh:: some days it’s not worth posting :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/6 "2003-01-17T21:22:28Z")
And between my girlfriend and I we have 3 e-mail addresses. We get between 75-200 spam a day in each one. That’s what we get for daring to have our e-mail addresses be dictionary words. Well, two of them are, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/7 "2003-01-17T22:57:10Z")
That’s what I mean. Between my 2 home, and 2 work addresses, I get more spam than Hawaii could eat in a year! Does the gov’t really want me to send it to them? ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/8 "2003-01-18T02:55:49Z")
You _know_ those governement workers just want all the info on how to enlarge themselves… Someone had to say it And yes, I have heard of this. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-wants-your-spam/149300/9 "2003-01-18T03:22:50Z")
We created an e-mail address for our 74-year-old to show him the fancy thing called “the internet.” We used his first name, middle initial, and last name. He’d heard of “e-mail” but had ever seen it in action. Then we promptly forgot about the account. One day, I remembered and decided se if it was still active. It was full of spam, though it had only been used once – we sent him that first message. Our best guess is that a spammer did something along the lines of spamming john **A** [doe@domain.com](mailto:doe@domain.com) john **B** [doe@domain.com](mailto:doe@domain.com) john **C** [doe@domain.com](mailto:doe@domain.com) And so on…