HIT: Junk Mail -- How vendors are getting our addresses

[Cheryl King <cak@KUENTOS.GUAM.NET>]

Dear LM_NETTERS,
  I received several good responses to my target of how junk mailers are
getting our addresses.  One of the most revealing was just provided today
by the first such vendor who ever bothered to respond to my query of how he
got my address.  His letter, my letter to him, and the other responses
follow.  No one has attempted to answer my question of what we can do to
stop it?  I've never minded getting junk mail via the U.S. postal service,
but I do mind this intrusion into my personal E-mail box and its subsequent
cost in time, and for some people, money.  Is legislation against this in
our future?
_________
Dear Ms. King:

   I don't think I need "forgiveness," but to answer your question I
obtained your address from an
E-mail list broker.  You were not "singled out" for my mail--your address was
among about 900,000 I bought from the list broker.

                          John Shannon, Publisher
                          The Internet Travel Newsletter



> To:              John Shannon, Publisher(E-mail address deleted)
> From:          cak@kuentos.guam.net (Cheryl King)
> Subject:       Re: The Internet Travel Newsletter

>
> Please do not send me anymore unsolicited material--esp. in light of the 4
> garbaged messages I just received from you.  I will forgive you if you will
> tell me how you went about getting my address.
> Thank you for your help.
>
> Cheryl King, Librarian
  ________
With so many email indices available on the net, I would think that this
information is coming from the service provider.  I know that if I search
for my name it sure appears and I have never registered it with anyone
other than my isp.  Just a thought.
Carole

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are literally dozens of ways junk e-mailers could get your e-mail
address...

1) The easiest is to check you out when you visit a web site... depending on
the web browswer you use, it's probably capable of passing your e-mail
address to a web site. Or if you've ever filled out a survey on a web site,
you probably included your e-mail address as part of the survey.

2) If you ever post to newsgroups, e-mail addresses are part of the posting
information.

3) If you belong to a LISTSERV or other mailing list, typically they're set
up so anyone belonging to the mailing list can send a request for the
members of the list, this will show your name and your E-Mail address.

4) If your Internet service provider uses a UNIX-based server, it's very,
very easy for someone to take a copy of the /etc/passwd file which, among
other things, contains your full name, and your login name. Adding the name
of the machine to your login name will usually generate a valid e-mail
address. This same thing can be done with other types of machines, such as
Windows NT and DEC VMS, but I ain't as familiar with them!

5) If you have a web page of your own, you probably have a "mailto" tag that
includes your e-mail address.

With the exception of the first one, I've used each of these methods in the
process of doing technical support helping my member libraries and customers
in my previous employment. Specifically:

2) I've used Deja Vu, which archives old Newsgroup messages, to search for
e-mail addresses I've lost.

3) I belong to the KANLIB-L mailing list here in Kansas, we were curious to
see how many members of the Library Association's technology roundtable
subscribe to KANLIB-L, so I got the KANLIB-L list from the LISTSERV and then
compared it to the membership list I had.

4) when a member librarian forgets their login name, I can quickly use a
UNIX tool called "grep" to check the /etc/passwd file for their real name
and then read their login from that line.

5) I've used Alta Vista a couple of times to look for folks e-mail addresses
when I've forgotten everything about them other than the fact they had a web
page on Drew Carey, or whatever!)

There are other ways to collect e-mail addresses, but these are probably the
most common.

As to what to do about it, I have started using a standard, polite message
to reply to every such junk e-mail basically saying, "Please do not send
further, unsolicited messages to this account." Many folks are polite about
it, we'll see how well it works over time. :)

...brig
--
Brig C. McCoy                   |      Automation Consultant
Southeast Kansas Library System |  Internet: brigc@world.std.com
218 East Madison                |            brigm@midusa.net
Iola, KS 66749                  |     Phone: 316 365-5136
______________

From:    Dan Robinson /Indexing Services <DROBINSON@INFO.HWWILSON.COM>
Subject: Re: MISC:  Junk Mail

Everyone should be aware of the consequences of Webbed or Gopherized
listserver archives. Anyone can download addresses from the messages
on the archives. On the simplest level, it is somewhat easy to
construct a filtering macro in a wordprocessing program to extract
the email addresses and reorder them in a list. From there a junk
emailer can use them in the mailings.

For those who have web access, go to Altavista
(http://www.altavista.digital.com), or another Web search engine, and
do a search on either your name or email address. You might be
surprised at the results.

I use two tactics for Junk email sent to me personally. I keep a Junk
folder and move each piece of mail to it. If there is a "remove"
option, I use it. If I get a second piece of mail, or the remove
message bounces, I write a polite email explaining the problem to
"postmaster@site.junk.com .  As part of my request, I note that I
expect "remove" messages to NOT bounce or I expect junk emailer to
use a program to detect and delete duplicate addresses. After a
couple months, I clean out the junk folder of single hits and archive
problem messages.

Having a system to deal with junk email is much easier than getting
worked up every time one hits. Every time someone develops an email
program that makes sending email easier, there will be more and more
junk email. It's a brave new world.


Dan Robinson
Editorial Specs Specialist
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson@info.hwwilson.com



My husband has been on America On Line and is now on AT&T's Worldnet.
There are *directories*, both telephone and e-mail that you just click on
and there we are! I don't know *how* our addresses got there unless there
is some way to log the names that visit sites (via netscape or some other
browser) -- you know kind of like the Caller ID service that you can get
that shows the number of the caller?

Betty
        Betty Dawn Hamilton * bhamilt@tenet.edu * 806.637.4523
Learning Resources Specialist * Tenet Master Trainer * Brownfield High School
                701 Cub Drive * Brownfield, TX 79316

From: debbysue@juno.com (Dr. DebbySue Vandevender)
Date: Thu, 08 Aug 1996 07:06:12 EDT

Good morning,

        I, too, have suddenly "made it" to a great many lists in which I
have no interest.

        The postmasters seem to subscribe the user without previous
knowledge and/or permission.  Then, you are offered the opportunity to
decline membership in any or all of the proposed lists.

        Just yesterday I received a "welcome" from a Catalog Mart.  The
free service invited me to subscribe to any list I did not know about.
Well, I did not subscribe.  However, the culprit subscribed me to more
than 20 other lists.

        There must be some efficient (and polite-if possible) method of
getting our of this junk mail maze.

        Suggestions?

Debby Sue


Hi Cheryl-
I, too subscribe to LM_NET and BIG6, plus a couple of others, and I get
virtually *no* junk mail.  I'd guess the vendors are selling their "mailing
lists" just like they do in the postal world.  I know there is a way to
remove you name from lists in the postal world (don't remember what it is
tho).....wonder if there is also a way to do so in the e-mail world?  Maybe
Peter would know or the keeper at AOL?  Interesting question.

Sally Lantz     sarahl@ccpl.carr.lib.md.us

Cheryl King, Librarian
Agana Heights Elementary
Box DE
Agana, Guam 96910
E-Mail:  Cheryl.King@KUENTOS.GUAM.NET
Home Phone:  563-1073


GUAM-Where America's Day Begins!