Post a couple messages, start getting spam

Since posting late yesterday about Mette's Grimm/Andersen stories, I have now received 19 spams on my latest throw-away email address.

The following:

pabutler from netconnect.com.au pratsc from terra.es antonio_ferrara from palazzosasso.com trigsbt from adelphia.net karen.hooper from btclick.com acaulfield from oneills.ie t.schoorl from codetel.net.do eamonhigh from eircom.net t.informatica from netvisao.pt smurphy from eastwind.com.au

with my latest address -- and their computers are obviously desparately in need of an virus scan.

Time for a new throw-away address.

- snip -

Yes, this is what I mean. Maybe I was unclear in my explanation. Knowing that your choice is the best I am not "denouncing" it, but I don't have that option, so this is why I do it my way. My advice also still stands for those in the same situation as me.

How is this done - without actually creating a new account?

(My advice, from a discussion in a thread in an other ng)

Munge your address in such a way that it is useless to a bot but obvious to a human. Avoid using a valid domain in the domain part of the munged address. If you munge their address with an invalid user id but leave the domain valid and intact, then the mail server of the valid domain will still have to process the spam -- usually by sending a reply to the originating address saying the user is unknown/invalid.

If the domain is munged and invalid the spammers' servers have the extra processing to do because when they do a lookup they can't match the domain part of the address to any domain in the DNS. That places the hassle/load on the spammers rather than on the valid domain.

[Addendum: Verisign's current trickery means _they_ will suffer the extra load generated by the invalid domain. So be it!]

It should be added that as of late the most aggressive spambots have been developed to look also for inverted user-id's, e.g. spmatshma = amhstamps ...

album, stock, gum, hinges, lib(rary) -- whatever not sounding as "remove" -- and put it as a prefix to your normal user-id. Do not use capital letters, which facilitates identifying you for the bots.

Some spam-bots are over-active, and will happily grab any email-address and start sending their stuff. I haven't received spam from any of those you mention -- and I've posted quite much since yesterday, also on other groups.
The best way to protect yourself seems to be fiddling around with your ordinary (recognizable) email address so that it cannot be reached by spammers.

All very right, Peter. The only "problem" is that (at least)
my provider refuses flatly to send any message where the domain part is munged. The only thing I can do is to munge the user id the way I've done. Hence my advice.
If and when they look up, they will recognize words such as spam, crap, etc., but do not look for more ordinary

I'm not sure I understand your apparent objection. Why would you _want_ to send messages to an invalid domain? I mean, the whole point is to render the ability to send invalid -- for the spammer, not for you.

contains an invalid domain? If you do, so be it. You have no other choice

of allowing e-mail addresses with invalid domains and do allow it. So my advice still stands. It's the _best_ choice, not the _only_ choice.