I Win

Like Chris Wenham, I gave up the battle against spam some time ago. Sure, I use filters to an extent, and I block known spammers and known spam ip addresses via my host service's ensim control panel, but all that really does is cut down on the junk.

But earlier this week, I scored a minor victory.

Ya know how most people advise NEVER to respond to spammers? Well, lately I have been responding to spammers. But not with the usual "Stop sending me this sh!t" that most people use. No, instead I've been sending along a one-sentence response: "Send me the money." It doesn't matter what product or pitch the spammer sends me, I take a bit of time to figure out the proper reply email (if there is one), and always send that message. And if they respond, I continue to send that message.

So I've had this ongoing dialogue with one of the Nigeria scam spammers for a couple of weeks now. I will send my one-sentence reply, and the spammer will send a little bit of information. I even got a cool jpg of a box of money out of the deal. And every single response got "Send me the money." After about five repetitions of this, the spammer finally sent the following reply: "Ask your [expletive deleted] mother for money idiot."

I laughed at my victory. And then I replied "Why would I want my mother to send me an idiot? Send me the money."

And for the past couple of days, I've sent my spamming friend a new line: "I'm waiting on the money." But he's probably blocked my email, as I've gotten no further response from him.

I just think it's great that I spammed a spammer to the extent it pissed him off, and with very little effort on my part. I win!

[Posted at 19:55 CST on 05/31/02] [Link]