Spam Gourmet
SpamGourmet ( http://www.spamgourmet.com ) is a great free service for those who receive lots of spam. It’s simple, brilliant, and satisfying. Most people get spam because they post their email addresses in Internet discussion groups, on their own websites, or give it out to websites that don’t really need it - SpamGourmet helps you fight back.
For example: You visit XYZ.Com, and decide to buy a widget. They require your email address so you give it to them. XYZ.com sells your email address to a list distributor, who sells it to 200 advertisers, and you get spam. Or you ask a question about widgets in your favorite on-line forum or chat room, again posting your email address so people can reply to you. An email address harvesting program finds your email address in the forum that evening and sells it to another 200 advertisers, and you get more spam. Lots of it.
Spam Gourmet helps break the life cycle of spam. It allows you to create an unlimited number of temporary email addresses as you need them, which forward to your ‘regular’ email address automatically. For example, when you sign up for SpamGourmet, you select a user name of “Bob”. Your SpamGourmet email address is:
“bob@spamgourmet.com”.
Now you go to XYZ.com to buy your widget, and when they ask you for an email address, you just make one up using your SpamGourmet account - say:
“xyz.4.bob@spamgourmet.com”.
The first part of this address (xyz) starts a new temporary address which tells you who you gave this address to. The second part (a number from 1 to 20) tells the service how many emails you will accept at this address before it self destructs. After that number is reached, all future emails will be deleted automatically. So in the example above, 4 emails will be accepted to this address, and they will automatically be forwarded to your “real” email address (bob@realestate.com, bsmith@aol.com, etc).
This is great for several reasons -
1. When you start getting spam you know who sold you out because you never gave that address to anyone except XYZ.com - when the mail is forwarded to your inbox, the service adds a line telling you what email address it was originally addressed to.
2. After allowing the specified number of emails, that address just stops working - no need to unsubscribe (which normally doesn’t work anyway)
3. All your email winds up in the same inbox. Some people maintain a free Hotmail or Yahoo account to use as a giveaway address, but that requires you to check your mail at yet another email address. Sometimes you want that initial email from XYZ (which might be your receipt for the widget order) but don’t want anything else from them. Keeping a separate account means you have to check it once in a while and delete the spam- if you don’t check it, they shut down your account.
4. Once you set up your account, you never have to go back to the SpamGourmet website, ever. You make up email addresses when you need them, ‘on the fly’ - it’s simple and brilliant.
5. It’s satisfying. Every time I make up another address and watch the spam come in a few days later, it’s nice to know that after 2 more messages I’ll never hear from them again and I beat them at their own game.
What it won’t do
It won’t stop the spam that is currently coming to your real email address. That address has already been sold to the top spammers - it may be beyond salvaging at this point. The best thing to do is change your ‘real’ email address and then stop giving it out to anyone except friends and business associates. Use your SpamGourmet address for anyone you don’t know personally or do business with.
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Copyright 2006 Chuck Cutler. All rights reserved.
Chuck Cutler is a technology consultant to the commercial real estate industry. His web site, The Commercial Broker ( http://www.TheCommercialBroker.com ), is Commercial Real Estate’s Online Community for brokers, leasing agents, developers and property managers.
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About the Author:
Chuck Cutler is a technology consultant to the commercial real estate industry. His web site, The Commercial Broker ( http://www.TheCommercialBroker.com ), is Commercial Real Estate’s Online Community for brokers, leasing agents, developers and property managers.
