I agree with Paul. But the damage from these messages is greater than just
clogging the internet. Some of the spam programs use this kind of ruse to
collect email address lists. What they do is come up with some clever
message that will get people to forward it to lots of other people. Then
they use software that looks at all email traffic flowing through an access
point on the internet and use part of the body of their original message as
an identifying signature. This gets them tons of email addresses with very
little duplication. Often people will scour their address books and send
mail to folks they haven't corresponded with in a while. Other forms of the
"hook" message include, the inspirational thought of the day, charitable
causes, bogus virus warnings, basically anything asking you to "email
everyone you know" etc.
My two cents...
73's
- Tom
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Tom Scott - Wyle Electronics - KD7DMH/KT
10300 SW Nimbus Ave #PB, Portland, OR 97223
503-603-1931 - TEL 503-684-6620 - FAX
503-504-1583 - Cell 503-604-8651 - Pager
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tentec@contesting.com [mailto:owner-tentec@contesting.com] On
Behalf Of Paul R. Valko
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 1999 4:41 AM
To: Rick Grossman
Cc: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] SPAM ALERT! [Fwd: Fw: 4th grade e-mail project]
Welcome to the internet, Rick.
Don't beleive everything you see and NOTHING that you read - especially on
the net. This is the electronic equivent of a chain letter.
You will read about thousands more of these same FAKE messages over the
years. Sometimes it'a school class, college project, little kid dieing of
cancer who gets two cents every time an email gets forwarded, etc.
MOST IMPORTANT : NEVER, EVER forward a message that includes the phrase,
"FORWARD THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW!"
They are designed to clog the internet and generally waste time.
Please do NOT forward them.
Lesson over.
73! =paul= W8KC
Collector of Ten*Tecs and other fine plastics
<http://www.acs.oakland.edu/~prvalko>
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