I'm an inadvertent spam-merchant! (Please spare the pandas and spank ME!)
By guybrush
@guybrush (4658)
Australia
June 6, 2009 11:08pm CST
I did a really silly thing a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of years of not receiving any emails for Viagra, penile implants, Nigerian prize inheritances, etc., I suddenly received about a dozen different money scams in one day. Knowing they were rubbish, I deleted them - but the next day, I received another batch. I deleted those, too. After a few days of this, I got cross, and wrote that I'd put the information in the hands of the Australian Federal Police - then I pressed 'reply'. My bad. The next day, I received over 1,200 'Undeliverable' notices, saying my emails could not be delivered. I deleted these, but since then, there have been hundreds more each day - and now I'm getting irate emails from perfectly normal strangers, telling me to leave them alone, stop spamming them, stop trying to cheat them, etc., etc. The emails are all addressed to MY email address - but with names such as Doctor Reymond Mullah and other people who definitely do NOT reside at my address or use my computer! Obviously, when I stupidly replied (out of frustration and general p!ssed-offedness) my email address was then 'hijacked' in order to scam hundreds of other poor souls. I have written to my internet provider asking whether there is any solution - but I fear I will have to change my email address in order to fix the matter permanently. So, a timely warning for all of us - never be tempted to get smart with these @rsers ... it leads to doom! (Needless to say, my husband said 'I told you so' ...)
6 people like this
7 responses
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
7 Jun 09
Dear Miss Gu Ybrush,
You don't know me but my late father was always very happy after he moved to Austrialia to live close to forward thinking and positive action purple such as yourself. He always said to me that if I should ever find myself experiencing hard times I could do much worse than seek the assistance of someone like yourself. With his words ringing in my ears I beg to presume a little of your time. We all need money in these difficult moments and I am sure that you are no different. My father deposited $100,000,000 at the Bank of Oztria and I now urgently am in need. Due to draconian currency laws in my own country of Nigruss I must access urgently his funds. I know that you are just the kind of man to help me. I have developed an idea that I just know will work. I intend to set up a viagra processing plant in your country - Blue Pill Enterprises - as I know that men inn your wonderful country are in need of a little stiffener. If I could prevail upon you to purchase a small amount of stock - shall we say $2,000 - then I am willing to let you share in what I know is going to be a runaway success. You will be a much bigger and richer man and I shall be well on the way to releasing the funds held in your country.
Please forward this letter to 1,200 of your closest friends. They too will want to not let this opportunity pass them by.
Your very sincerely
Bob Upndown
3 people like this
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
7 Jun 09
So it was YOU that's been sending out this one then? I got it yesterday myself. I decided on $10,000 worth because you can never keep a viagra fuelled investment down! It'll be on the up and up for sure. 
This was one time where a hard decision was actually practical, relevant and entirely welcomed! This is one situation where I'm entirely confident that there'll be many big things coming! 
This was one time where a hard decision was actually practical, relevant and entirely welcomed! This is one situation where I'm entirely confident that there'll be many big things coming! 2 people like this
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
7 Jun 09
See, James ... in amongst all the bad, scamming lads, there's ONE genuine one. And we might have missed it, because of all the BAD and WRONG ones. Mr Upndown sounds like a genuine and decent human being, and I definitely think we should help him with the setting up of his viagra plant. Just think ... stiff lads in Oz ... many an antipodean lass will dance in delight at the thought! Woo! It's a wonderful, wonderful thing Mr Upndown was able to contact us within this forum ... all hail the little blue diamond-shaped pill!
2 people like this
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
7 Jun 09
i'm so sorry to hear about what is happening to your mailbox... i had been scammed a lot as well and my mailbox is full of scams everyday... i am very annoyed as well... but i just delete them and never want to entertain them as i know that it will become worst if i did... and i'm not willing to change my email address just for those spammers as it will show them that they had win over me... so i will just be persistent and delete them everyday... take care and have a nice day...
1 person likes this
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
8 Jun 09
Hello, Lingli. I'm going to be changing my email address today, as there were another 400 when I turned the computer on. Half of them go into the spam folder - but the other half are in the ordinary mail. It wouldn't be too bad deleting them each day if there were only a few - but there are hundreds, and I'm scared I'll accidentally delete some proper email stuck in the middle of it. It's very annoying! I hope your problem resolves, too.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
14 Jun 09
I didn't used to get any spam in the email supplied by my ISP...then all at once I started to receive some. Shortly after this I received a notice from my ISP saying if I didn't want to receive spam it would cost me $30 a year. I think that is rather unethical behaviour. There was no need for them to go about things in that way...by flooding my Inbox with spam....all they had to do was notify me that there would be a charge to control the spam in my Inbox from there on in.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Jun 09
I didn't pay, no. I told them to shove their account where the sun don't shine and changed ISPs. The joke was on me though. Within about 3 months the new ISP advised they would be charging for the service of keeping my Inbox spam free - again for $30 for the year. That's about $2 a month and I'm ok with that...I never get any spam in that mailbox.
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
15 Jun 09
Wow - that certainly sounds like unethical behaviour on the part of your ISP, MsTickle - they should be protecting you as part of their service! (I hope you didn't pay it!) My ISP has been really good in this instance. They explained that someone is using my email address to send their crappy spam - which was why I was receiving up to 1000 new 'return undelivered' things each days. My email address was automatically sending to people from huge lists of randoms - then being blocked at their end by their spam filters - and being sent back to me. My ISP has stopped the undeliverables from being sent to my box - so now I'm only getting a trickle of 'new' scams each day, which I just delete (having learnt my lesson!) I only had a couple this morning, so I can handle that, and won't be changing my address for the time being. It's too hassley to do that, as I can't remember all the important places I've left my address. Pity there are so many @rsers out there!
1 person likes this
@ellie333 (21016)
•
7 Jun 09
Hi Guybrush, When I was reading this I had a chuckle but at the same time it is very serious all these poor people think you are now the spammer, oh dear. It maybe that you will have to change your email address and you do not know to how many thousands of people these spammers you got annoyed with have sent out to. Wish you luck on this one and will take heed and just delete rather than replying. Huggles. Ellie :D
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
7 Jun 09
I feel very embarrassed, Ellie ... even though none of those people know it's ME with all the strange, fake-Nigerian names, it does send a chill down my spine to think of my address being sullied. Still waiting to hear from my internet provider ... it's a public holiday here tomorrow, so I'll give them until Tuesday. There were another 200 when I logged in just then ... whew.
2 people like this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
7 Jun 09
TELL HUBBY TO BE NICE, U don't want to hear that. I can see where u would get aggravated w/all that b/s. sorry it tuRNED out the way it did. Can u not block them?? GOOD LUCK!!
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
8 Jun 09
Hi, AL! Today is the day for a new email address, I think. My IP hasn't replied, so my husband is going to phone them this morning and see whether he can get any sense out of them. Then he'll change my address for me. I had another 400 of the cr@ppy things when I logged in, so it's time to take action. Obviously the problem's not going to go away!
2 people like this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
8 Jun 09
That sucks having to get a new addy. Now u will have to notify everyone. Hope u don't have too many to notify. HAVE A GREAT WEEK.
1 person likes this
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
11 Jun 09
Yes your husband was right, I have also seen it on the news that the worst thing that you can possibly do is respond to any of these emails because this is what gives them your address. The same with opting out of their mailing list. You see the email service provider is the one who sent you the message. That is why it does no good to file a SPAM report on most of these emails. the only SPAM that ends up in your "junk" folder are those that you requested from outside the email system that you haven't previously added to your list of accepted senders. such as OPt-in confirmation emails and emails that are filtered using your email filters. What you can do is abandon the box and close it out for about 45 days (don't forget to tell everyone that you want to know where you have moved to! I always recommend mail2world email addresses because the box is big and because you can get one of over 400 endings on your mail2 email box. I have one that is mail2attitude and one that is mail2boss)once the email box that you have is closed you can go back to that email service and sign back up.
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
11 Jun 09
Thanks, Sharone, for your excellent advice! I certainly won't be acknowledging these types of email anymore - I've certainly learnt my lesson. My ISP has been a great help, and have now disabled the 'Returned Undelivered' type of email, so I'm not getting hundreds of those everyday anymore. I'm still getting a trickle of 'new' Nigerian scams each day, but I'm just deleting and ignoring. If the problem escalates again, I'll certainly try your remedy - it sounds like a good solution - thanks!
1 person likes this
