🚀 go-pugleaf

I have been following the thread "Hot [sic] to get off of junk mail lists"
(news:37CCA6D7.B176E587@ibm.net) and thought I'd share one of my hobbies
related to that subject.

For over a decade, I've been including a unique code in my address so I can
trace my name on mailing lists. Whenever an entity asks for my address, I
use the first line of the address to indicate a department number. Then my
street address goes on the second line. I talked with my local postmaster,
and this is legal. So I assign a number to every credit card application,
every warranty card, and so on. For example:

Tim Chambers
Dept. 123
456 Bogus St.
Smalltown, CO 80132

I keep a list of department numbers and who I assigned them to.

I find it amusing to trace where my name goes. The coolest stuff comes from
Parsons Technology. They sell my name to other companies that I actually
*enjoy* hearing from. The worst is Toshiba. I filled out a warranty card for
my TV. Since then, they have sold my name to countless loser enterprises.
Book clubs have sold my name to "get rich quick" schemers.

I used to be (even more :-) obsessive about every piece of junk mail. I kept
them all in a file by the date I received the piece. I planned to someday do
a complete analysis and post it to the 'Net. I've calmed down -- now I just
watch it ooze across my kitchen table and dribble into the trash can.

The other part of my hobby just started about a month ago. I've been using
the e-mail comment feature. You have to make sure your ISP supports this
(try sending yourself a test message), but all *real* (as opposed to
*loser*) mailing systems allow a plus sign followed by a comment after your
e-mail ID and before the @. For instance, let's see if spammers pick up
tbc+hfwjmas@netbox.com out of this posting.

My SPAM tracing is more selective right now, but only because I'm not
interested in getting an ever-growing number of duplicate messages. To trap
e-mail SPAM like a bug on flypaper I simply use a free lifetime e-mail
address I picked up a while back: tbc@who.net. I never give that address out
to a human, but I do leave it out like bait (think about what flies eat :-)
for spammers to take back to their maggot nests. I give lower priority to
handling any mail sent to that address. It's easy to spot when it comes to
my Inbox. I indicate my *real* address in the style popularized by Keith
Dawson does at his "Tasty Bits from the Technology Front" Web site
(http://www.tbtf.com) -- spelling it out as "tbc at netbox dot com".

<>< Tim http://www.netbox.com/tbc, <tbc at netbox dot com>