Al wrote:
RANT warning.

About one in 10 emails caught in my spam trap are bounced there from other
spam traps because my email address has been spoofed into the return email
address. Emails I never sent. I have actually received email from people
on my email pass list (Reka among them) that were not sent by the people
they claimed to be from. Even a rare event such as this coincidence becomes
common given the shear scale of spam flowing through the system.

Email is turning out to be a real nightmare when used for legitimate
communication.

Customers email me questions and then their servers and spam protocols make
me jump through hoops just to respond.

Recently a lot of hotmail and yahoo users act as if I am not responding to
their emails or order inquiries and I am sure a spam trap on these servers
is "protecting" them from my replies and order confirmations. And I really
can't blame the customers if they don't have time to deal with regular spam
trap reviews. It only takes 48 hours for the list of spam in these
directories to grow to mid numbing proportions

My email address is 10 years old. I get hundreds of spam messages every
morning. I have developed a very good spam filter system on my own and have
even taught it to recognize real and fake hotmail addresses. Most real
emails make it through, but it takes 30 to 45 minutes every morning just to
hunt down the one or two legitimate email a week that my spam filter rules
mistake for spam.

No matter how many clues I give on my website to help people get emails
safely by the filters, somehow they never catch on. They manage to find my
email address on the website but miss the clues. The buzz word orchid in the
subject of an email to me is magic. :-) Subjects lines like "a question
about something on your website" is probably going to be missed if it ends
up in the spam trap.

On the other end. I am always finding, "Did you get my order from a few
days ago" emails from people who are wondering if my secure sever is broken
when my actual replies (with the word orchid in the subject) are buried in
their spam directories.

I hate spam. I don't need "Viagra soft tabs" or a new mortgage and I am not
interested in updating my bank account info, so just stop it.

Now I may be a little different than other people in the orchid world, but
for the record all you ORCHID RELATED spammers out there (and some of you
are not in China) , I don't like getting unsolicited email from YOU either.
Don't tell me I asked for it when I visited your site or bought plants from
you. I can assure you I won't make that mistake again. And I can assure
you, after the first one, future UCE from your address never makes it passed
my spam trap so you'll never know what I think of your marketing techniques.
I will not respond with the word 'remove' in the subject. Sorry. *My*
email address. *My* rules. AHHHHHHH

I suspect that last paragraph touched some nerves, but it's just how I feel.
I don't see why I should have to treat orchid related UCE any different than
I treat the Viagra pushers. Its all spam.

Rant concluded. Peace be with you.


I'm with you. I may have over-reacted but I felt it was more
appropriate to over react than under-react. I deleted the OrchidSafari
email list from my computer because I was suddenly getting spam from
people on the list. I *believe* it was a coincidence, the same people
being on the similar lists (like the OGD or whathaveyou), however I
chose to be conservative. Rather than have the list attacked I chose to
delete it. Another fellow is trying to rebuild it, he uses mac gear,so
maybe he'll have fewer bot attacks. We'll see how that goes.

It goes further than email attacks, I'm spending time on hold trying to
figure out if one of my bank accounts has had my identity robbed. I
suddenly realise I haven't gotten a statement since October. [sigh]
I'm probably OK, but sheesh, I'd rather not be on hold.

K Barrett