3.
Apr 4, 2008 9:58 AM
in response to:
pp7
Re: Spam Hell
I too have been looking for answers to SPAM Hell. I've been reading all of the complaints scattered about this forum. There appears to be a common behavior pattern to our dilemma. Nearly everyone with experience mentions their ISP. I've always considered myself to be a cautious surfer, learned what to avoid, how to tell if the site is safe or is spoofing. So I couldn't understand, "Why?," practically overnight, I was getting smut-spammed to death. Everyone and their dog was trying to send me a greeting card. All of my time sensitive "political bulletins" suddenly disappeared, arriving week's later and dated in the future, where it was too late to sign an online petition or write a letter to my congressperson before a critical vote. My friends started calling me on the phone, long distance, wondering if I'd fallen ill. I was ready to throw my computer out the window and then I called my ISP instead.
Unbeknownst to and me all their other subscribers, the support tech informed me, after three weeks of SPAM Hell, three weeks earlier, they'd installed an "email enhancement" program on their server. Supposedly to trap spam! "Uh oh," I thought, "it wouldn't be the first time a vendor caused a problem so they could SELL you the solution and raise fees." I told them to take that "enhancement" off my account and I'd deal with my own SPAM.
I bought SpamSieve off the net, for just $30, and it works like a charm. It captures 98% and that's good enough for me. Once the ISP's enhancement was out of my picture, a sense of normalcy returned. I had to create a web-based address, however, to get my "political bulletins" arriving on time again.
Oddly, it's now many month's later and a worse problem has arisen. Support Tech suggested "It's a virus" when I suggested they had a more serious security breach. The new problem: I'm sending myself smut mail, from me to me. Go figure! If I tag it as SPAM, I'll never be able to use my iCal's built-in email alarm to remind me of a doctor's appointment. And it isn't just smut, now it's truly "commercial" goods like "Gucci handbags!" What's ironic in all of this is when I called tech support this time, the robot router who answered the line said, "If you're calling about the Email Enhancement program push 1." This tells me, if it's a virus, it's infected their entire system or it wouldn't be the first option offered by their robo call router. Obviously, it's a huge problem for everyone and for some dumb reason, my ISP doesn't want to dump the program or mind losing customers and revenue over it.
After 9/11 we American's were advised by Bush to "go shopping" as you normally do and that's how you can help!" Citizenship is reduced to consumerism. Electronic surveillance keeps our war economy strong, boosting profits for the largest war profiteers. Emails reveal our innermost desires and that's why "Marketing is the seduction that leads to commercial intercourse," and easy enough when privacy no longer exists.
I recently joined the "openrights.org" forum not realizing they're based in the U.K. Electronic surveillance has been around much longer and stronger there, than it is here. The citizens are in a uproar over "identity theft" reaching pandemic proportions, since the war or terror began, with insufficient privacy protections not yet legislated. As of yesterday, Bankers in the UK are no longer accepting responsibility should a depositor lose their money if they can't prove they've taken every precaution, with anti-spam, anti-spyware and anti-virus software. Isn't it odd, how all of these security issues fall on the shoulders of those with the fewest resources, and the most to lose? After all, this is the price we pay for our national security. For some dumb reason, I feel more insecure than ever. I don't feel free and I don't feel safe! Data mining private information is sold to corporations to defray the costly expense of electronic surveillance and to me, it sounds like a recipe for disaster.
