I usually don’t rant about things like this in public fora, but this time they really went too far…
As a regular poster on some tw.bbs groups and here, I get quite a lot of junk mail from Taiwan, most of which I just use the old Delete button on. Lately, however, I am getting huge files from one “ABC English Teaching Center” or “sabrina.gif.com.tw”. If I had better computer hacking skills, I might seriously consider trying to wipe these people off the face of the Internet. I mean, you don’t send people a 2 MB sound file in an unsolicited DM mailing, particularly after having sent several sizable HTML files already and getting no response.
What is even funnier is that their Web site is chock-full of horrible English. I don’t know who the poor foreign girl is whose picture pops up (I didn’t try to view their web page, it just came up from hitting something by accident in their e-mail) but she is either illiterate or duped…
I’m all for free enterprise, Internet commerce and initiatives to teach English, but this one is annoying me. I’m thinking of setting up a Web cam to watch some paint dry and then sending them a couple MBs worth…
Grrrrr!
Terry
I don’t know what email you use - but most have filters or rules
There’s lots of ways round those filters. You can set up so e-mails get sent from a website not an e-mail address so you can’t block the adress, or you can write a programem that changes the last few digits of the e-mail address each time. That’s how some spam still comes through to my hotmail address. I think I’ve got one from Sabrina too. I’m verycareful, but these were from people sending me Taiwanese greetigns cards, so the website that sends the cards uses or gives out my address. Bastards!
Bri
I even tried to mail back to them using their own link, but it was broken – I think because they spelled the word “teacher” wrong in their e-mail address link??
Why do I have the impression this particular enterprise maybe didn’t pass the whole ISO-9000 thing?? ![]()
I can’t seem to block them with filters, it’s always a different, non-existent address. Oh well. Maybe I can learn something from their Chinese marketing text. Either the Chinese or the English has to be good, right?
Terry
I don’t know what you are getting - but blocking message header content seems to work for me
Terry… formerly of School #6 in Tienmou, and CCU?
I find that Microsoft’s Hotmail service is quite effective in blocking the majority of spam. I use the Hotmail address for “high risk” applications such as websites which require e-mail addresses.
I have other addresses which I use for other purposes. My “real” address I only give out to people I have personally met and trust.
Nope, not of School #6, and rarely in Tienmu except to buy cheese about once a month…
Terry
I have started using mailwasher (freeware) for POP3 accounts. You can preview headers, size, etc before downloading the message, and set up complex filters with wildcards. It can also “bounce” emails to make it look like your address doesn’t exist. It’s at www.mailwasher.net.