One of the simplest ways to get yourself a sample of the current crop of spam is by using a "spamtrap" e-mail address. Such an address is not advertised as being a way to contact anyone, but is visible to spammers' automatic address harvesters. You can, for instance, put such an address on a Web page with the foreground and background text colours set the same, so that no human can even see it when reading the page normally.
Because I write the I/O letters column for Atomic magazine here in Australia (and reprint it on Dan's Data six months after paper publication), I get to see all of the spam that makes it through the filters on the io@atomicmpc.com.au address. The I/O address isn't a true spam trap, since it has a real purpose, but it's certainly not subscribing to any mailing lists.
Recently, io@atomicmpc.com.au has been receiving regular press releases from the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia, which is the local branch of Lyndon LaRouche's completely sensible and entirely not batshit insane political task force.
Most recently, these messages have informed me that the only thing standing between us and the complete financial collapse of Western society is LaRouche's Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007, which includes a number of modest proposals along the lines of nationalising the entire US financial industry.
That seems simple enough. I'm sure that right after George W Bush and Dick Cheney finish having gay sex on live TV, they'll get right onto making it happen.
Woe betide the world if they ignore Lyndon's predictions, after all. Remember how his pan-ethnic street gangs conquered the USA in 1973? Remember how domestic terrorism tore the USA apart in the Reagan years? And, of course, everybody knows that the British Royal Family are drug pushers!
(A bit of a long walk to the joke, but worth it, I think.)
It's possible that I'm only getting the LaRouche spam because the Citizens Electoral Council are still rockin' a 1994-era mailing list system that doesn't send a confirmation e-mail, and someone subscribed io@atomicmpc.com.au as a joke. (Ah, for a return to those halcyon days when you could effortlessly subscribe anyone you liked to dozens of random newsletters...)
I wouldn't be surprised if they just bought a "Press" e-mail list or ran their own Web-page troller, though.
9 September 2007 at 9:07 am
they probably haven't bought a Press list. they're just spamming. i get their spam at my work email address (which has only existed since Feb this year, and which has not been subscribed to any mailing lists except a few staff lists run at work).
i got one of their spams at my home address several months ago, and immediately added them to my anti-spam filter. unfortunately, i have no control over the spam filters at work. actually, their batshit insane spam is kind of amusing.
like all spammers, they think their spam isn't spam. they are also at great pains to make the false claim that "The Citizens Electoral Council is a registered political party and this message is a designated commercial electronic message as defined under Schedule 1 of the Spam Act 2003"
according to the Australian Electoral Commission, the CEC were de-registered as a political party in Dec 2006.
http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Deregistered_parties/ceca.htm
for further info, try a google search for "Citizens Electoral Council +deregistered"
12 September 2007 at 11:27 am
A friend of mine subscribed me to Ann Coulter's mailing list- they gladly took me on without any confirmation email. So LaRouche isn't the only nutbag with a tenuous grasp of modern mailing list etiquette.
To be fair to Coulter and her coterie of associated loons though, when I finally got fed up with their missives and unsubscribed, they respected my wishes.
26 September 2007 at 2:26 pm
While the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia was deregistered on 27 December 2006, another "Citizens Electoral Council of Australia" was registered on 4 September 2007.
There are no-one called Ishwerwood listed as a current office holder, so perhaps they are splitters!
http://www.mwscomp.com/movies/brian/brian-07.htm
28 March 2010 at 4:55 pm
Guys, if you could come up with some original and not-disproven slanders, then you might have some cred.
You'll also find that the LaRouche movement is the only institution with the answers to the current and accelerating descent into a New Dark Age.
Get with the programme fellas!
See http://www.larouchepac.com and http://www.cecaust.com.au
Cheers all,
Sean