[OT] Re: list email address security

[Alex Rice]

On Friday, June 13, 2003, at 02:15  AM, Ken Apthorpe wrote:

> As they have got me, it is a sure thing that a torrent of spam from all
> directions is about to follow.  So, I expect I will shortly have to 
> change
> my email address.  I think I may have to unsubscribe first.

It does sound like too much of a coincidence. Anyways, my opinion: It's 
futile to change your email address whenever you get some spam.

1) There are some really good spam filtering tools out there such as 
Spam Assassin, and the Bayesian filtering such as that found in Apple's 
Mail.app. I've had the same email address for 8 years and I get 
literally hundreds of spam per day, but I only see a handful of them 
because I have aggressive spam filtering. Kind of like when I check the 
postal mail at home, I just walk by the wastebasket as a matter of 
habit.

2) Contact your legislators and push for anti-spam laws. Here is the US 
this is gaining momentum. Several states have laws, AOL, MSN and FTC 
have joined the fray.

Alex Rice, Software Developer
Architectural Research Consultants, Inc.
alrice at ARCplanning.com
alrice at swcp.com