How to deal with spammers

[malaise]

A particular Caribbean newspaper had this spin off with ads for all sorts of crap and promotions for events on that island. Every freaking day, my email inbox was inundated with this rubbish. I finally snapped and sent them an email requesting that they remove my email address from their mailing list. When that failed I sent them an email warning them that I would send them 100 emails per day until they deleted my email address from their effin' mailing list.

I won. They took me off their effin' mailing list.

[CaptainTruth]

1. One thing I've done a few times with spammers ...

Is pretend I'm a professional marketing copy editor. I edit their message a bit & send it back, thanking them for submitting their copy to my agency, along with an invoice for my editing work, noting that if it's not paid within 90 days I will turn it over to a collection agency, & that if they submit any further copy (in other words, send me more spam) it will constitute a binding contract for my professional editing services, which they are legally obligated to pay for.

[malaise]

3. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Love it! I think I'll try that next time.

[GemDigger]

2. My trick is telling them my phone battery is getting ready to die and could they call me on

this other number which really belongs to the police station.

[malaise]

4. Hahahahaha

[2naSalit]

5. Awesome!

How long did it take?

[malaise]

7. Four days

[2naSalit]

8. Then I'd say

that methods seems very effective!

[malaise]

9. My old computer used to send them straight to Spam

but when I got this one I saw them daily. It was pissing me off and I decided to act.
I now have a new weapon

[INdemo]

6. by law the have to take your email address off the mailing list if you unsubscribe

check this out on the FTC website

[malaise]

10. I doubt that FTC rules apply in the Caribbean

but I'll have a look

[INdemo]

19. Well what I do is I forward the spam emails to

[e-mail] and it takes about a week maybe and you will not see that senders address again
That is the FTCs spam action site.

Also what I do is I forward the spam emails to spam@(who ever your email provider is) and it can be stopped at their server and it works.

Its hard to tell where these spam emails originate from but many times when I try to open the email and unsubscribe that is as far as I can go because my virus software will kick in and warn about site being unsafe and may contain malware or whatever.

[malaise]

20. Sound advice

Thanks. Saving your post.

[Vinca]

11. We had a different problem last week. Someone hacked the website or email of a local business.

When they created their spam email with the phony/dangerous link to a "proposal," they changed one number in the businesses phone number in the fake email: it ended up being ours. One afternoon last week we were bombarded with phone calls from contracting companies of various types from all over the country. The business finally took down their web page, but all week we got the occasional call asking about the email. I talked to a few people when I heard them leaving messages about the difficulty they were having opening the "proposal." It's amazing people fall for these things. The calls seem to have stopped and if this was a spam call meant only for our area, we'll probably be okay. If not, we're going to have to change our phone number.

[malaise]

12. The scam phone calls are way worse than the spam emails

Years ago there was a hilarious response that was all over the web about a telemarketer

Here it is - the best response ever

[llmart]

13. Thanks for starting my Sunday with that hilarious video!

I had never heard of that before. That guy on the other end of the phone was pretty stupid not to just hang up.

[malaise]

14. I never watch that without howling with laughter

I never liked the last part with the flaming homosexual innuendo, but overall it is hilarious.

[Vinca]

15. OMG - that's one of the funniest things I've ever heard!

[malaise]

16. You can't hear it and not laugh

[Generic Other]

17. I was spammed by a school in England for years

They believed I was a parent and sent me links to some kid's grades, progress, etc. I wrote them repeatedly. Finally, they sent me a notice of a family pizza party at the school. I replied that I had posted the notice at a homeless shelter and that the inhabitants were overjoyed at the school's generosity in inviting them to the event. I got a response within minutes of sending that email. I no longer receive mailings.

[malaise]

18. Holy Shit that was brilliant

Hilarious