Re: LD mailing list question

["Stephen P. Goodman" <spgoodman@earthlight.net>]

> I use egroups and I think it's worth it, but it's not quite free. The
> company makes it's money by selling email addresses to spammers. A few
> months after joining an egroups list, I started receiving all sorts of
spam
> in Spanish and English. Some of it is a little unnerving. I get lots of
> messages from weight loss groups telling me I'm fat. Insurance companies
> like to subtly suggest that I'm going to die soon.

Alas, Mexico and Argentina - to say nothing of the Italy and the Baltic
states - have apparently discovered the free email business, and Spam comes
from 'em at an increasing rate.  But it's not just because of big companies
selling email lists.

I came afoul of a fellow on alt.music.makers.soloact sometime in
October-November - and, despite my having participated in the ng beforehand
he decided that I was spamming, and decided to publicly deride an 
invitation
to listen to MP3 as spam, giving the reason that MP3.com asks for an email
address the first time one wants to listen to anything.  I defended myself 
-
perhaps a bad thing to do in such cases - and within a few days began to
receive huge volumes of spam from Argentina servers.  Turns out this
happened to others at the newsgroup there in the past, so when I got one
that purported to be from Microsoft, when of course it wasn't, I not only
sent the message along to abuse@microsoft.com, I also gave them this chap's
address.  A week later the spam stopped coming altogether, and I got a note
from Microsoft thanking me for my effort.  Damn, and I'd hoped for more 
free
software! :)

So I don't think it's an eGroups thing at all.

Stephen Goodman
http://www.earthlight.net/Studios * The free Loop of the Week!
http://www.mp3.com/StephenGoodman * New MP3 Releases!
http://StephenGoodman.iuma.com * Even more MP3s!