# They're Back! Return of the music spammers! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 12, 2002, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648 "2002-05-12T16:40:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2002, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/1 "2002-05-12T16:40:22Z")
Remember these twerps? :mad: :rolleyes: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111995&highlight=annoying+emails](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111995&highlight=annoying+emails) I’ve started getting e-mails **again!** New ISP, I _think._ Same old BS. Don’t they learn? I blocked them from my e-mail account. \Dear, darling **TubaDiva** …won’t you pretty-please get out your big, 3 Stooges-type mallet & put the smackdown on these ding-a-lings again?\ I doubt I’m the only one getting this. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2002, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/2 "2002-05-12T17:23:36Z")
Yeah, I got one of those on the 4th of May. I almost sent off an irate reply, but then thought better of it. I haven’t received any more, although I haven’t blocked them. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/3 "2002-05-13T00:03:22Z")
I got one just now. Although it does say > [@](#): > > If you would like not to receive any further communications from Raraavis just reply to this message and type “REMOVE” in the subject line. at the bottom. Stupid spammers. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/4 "2002-05-13T01:16:51Z")
Received them also at the pre-SDMB-crash address I had in my profile, if that bit of info can help (I **was** wondering how these e-mails got there, since this mailbox is mostly inactive nowadays). ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/5 "2002-05-13T02:57:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francesca \* > \*\*I got one just now. Although it does say at the bottom. > > Stupid spammers. \*\* :eek: DON’T DO IT!!! DO NOT RESPOND! Spammers send out tons of spam-mail for the sole purpose of finding “live” addresses. How can they tell if your address is “live”? You send them a “Remove me” note! Then they sell your address to other spam-lists! Delete it or figure out the kill-filter on your e-mail program. But don’t respond! Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/6 "2002-05-13T04:57:41Z")
Though I usually subscribe to Fenris’ wisdom (don’t respond to spammers), in this case, I believe that the people at raraavis are innocent victims of the Klez virus, and unsubscribing will probably have the desired effect. I got the original “subscription” e-mails but didn’t unsubscribe, and since then I received one “newsletter” which I deleted. If I get another raraavis “newsletter” I plan on simply unsubscribing. From an article at Wired news: [Klez: Don’t Believe ‘From’ Line](http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52174,00.html) By Michelle Delio > [@](#): > > People signing up for newsletters and mailing lists that they never subscribed to has been a major source of frustration for both users and the list owners. > > If Klez happens to send an e-mail “from” a user to an e-mail list’s automatic subscribe address, the list software assumes the e-mail is a valid subscription request and begins sending mail to the user. The article further notes that this problem has happened, for example, with a Steely Dan mailing list. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/7 "2002-05-13T11:13:04Z")
Oh dear. I already sent the REMOVE email. I did wonder whether I should or not… and then I did. I should’ve tossed the coin again. No more spam as yet though. I shall just have to cross my fingers and hope that **Arnold** is right since this is my spam-free address. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/8 "2002-05-13T15:36:42Z")
I was hit in the first wave but had no idea they harvested my addy from here. Yeah, I got the “You’re using a former email address!” and the “WTF” response and the “I’m on vacation” autoreplies. I tried to respond to the REMOVE addy but it was bounced, I guess it didn’t matter because I haven’t received any others since then. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/9 "2002-05-13T21:54:47Z")
> [@](#): > > ``` > If Klez happens to send an e-mail "from" a user to an e-mail list's automatic subscribe address, the list > software assumes the e-mail is a valid subscription request and begins sending mail to the user. > > ``` That’s not what happened here, though. If you look at the first e-mails you got, you’ll notice that it says something like “You were signed up for this newsletter because you post at a music-related site”. In other words, they deliberately harvested e-mail addresses without waiting for requests. Spam, plain and simple. My next course of action is going to be to e-mail the members of the band and/or the manager, if I can find the addresses, and ask them if they know that their publicist is using tactics guaranteed to alienate potential customers. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/10 "2002-05-14T01:33:22Z")
For those who weren’t here for the first round, it’s bit complicated, but to get off the list you need to email [steverichards@sobevideo.com](mailto:steverichards@sobevideo.com), who is the person who mass mailed the original music newsletters which were somehow on a listserv which then went crazy because several people whose email addresses were also on the original mailing list (and who also don’t know how their email addresses got there) had auto-responders set up. This is the reply I received from Steve Richards at the time of the original chaos : We’re very sorry for the problem. This was a test that went awry I’m afraid. We’ll get you off the list and are trying to figure out what happened. Very sorry for the trouble its caused you and others. Steve Richards No satisfactory explanation for how he came by all our email addresses has ever been given. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/11 "2002-05-14T05:02:58Z")
I’ve heard from people NOT on the SDMB that got the same mailing, everyone on my sports car club listserv received it (I have another life away from the board, if you can believe it), so I suspect this was some sort of mass mailing that went awry in a major way. Did he harvest names from the SDMB? Not sure. Since we don’t publish consolidated member info, it would be quite tedious and we can’t imagine someone doing it for so little return. Same with the popups people get from time to time. They do NOT come from us; we don’t generate them from our site. Our advice for all these situations is to 1) use an email address that you reserve only for your board stuff. Up to you whether you actually read anything that gets there or just mass delete. 1. Get the “Ad-aware” program and run it on your system; it will show you the true source of your popup problems. It’s free and available from [download.com](http://download.com), try this link: [Download.com: Ad-aware](http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10107505.html?tag=lst-0-1) Win only, sorry, those of you on Macs. If you know of something that works on the Apple side of the house, please let me know. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2002, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/12 "2002-05-15T01:09:37Z")
I got hit in the first wave, but have come up clean so far this time. Don’t know what that means, but there ya have it. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-back-return-of-the-music-spammers/108648/13 "2002-05-16T01:55:18Z")
They missed me the first time around, but I had one sobe message yesterday. Like Tuba, I suspect this is an off-SDMB issue.