Be Warned

I have always hated spam but compared to what others have told me about how much they receive everyday, I figured we were pretty lucky. We use MailWasher Pro located at www.firetrust.com to filter, sort and preview our mail before downloading it. This has always worked well for us.

If an email is suspicious we can view is safely in MailWasher to determine its legitimacy, then download or delete it. We used to blacklist email addresses with it as well but spam email is mostly cloaked and there is no reason to penalize an innocent mail server.

As of October 19th we were receiving about 70 spam emails per day, that was normal for us. Then we listed a mare on Craigslist, we got several serious inquiries on her or at least they seemed serious.

Some of the inquiries were just: "Is the mare still available?". When we answered them back, "Yes, she is still available.", we never heard anything from them again.

The flood gates were opened. As of today, we are receiving about 300 spam emails per day and climbing. These inquiries are nothing more than a way to get you to respond and reveal your email address. It is then put on a spam list as a current and active email address.

We thought that if we used Craigslist again, we would just list a phone number and say that we will not respond to emails but my Son listed an item on there and actually got a spam phone call. It's a dangerous world out there...

Hillary

Enough already, Hillary, I got your messages loud and clear. I have received three phone calls from the Hillary Clinton Campaign. Plus all of the mass mailings in my mailbox. I am surprised that she doesn't have my e-mail address. The first two calls were from live people but the one that I got today was just a recording. Hillary herself will probably be calling me on Monday or Tuesday.

The last piece of mail that I got was all about where Barack Obama really stands on guns, that just struck me funny because it didn't say anything about where Hillary stands on guns. Then the recorded message that I got today was the same message about Obama's stand on guns, paid for by Hillary Clinton for President.

I get the feeling that I am being profiled here. A little paranoia is setting in, what makes them think that I am a bitter person living in a rural place or small town who clings to guns? Now while Barack Obama may have made this statement, it is the Clinton campaign who must really believe it or they wouldn't be targeting me with this ad and this recorded phone message.

Forwarded Emails

Don't you love forwarded emails? I do enjoy them if they are funny or informative in someway, but I hate the ones that are just harvesting email addresses. These usually include something about having good luck if you forward it on to 10 people in your address book, but if you don't then you will have bad luck for 3 years and all of your hair and teeth will fall out.

Other email harvesting forwards are usually very spiritual, telling you some heart wrenching story about the love of God and that if you don't send this email about Jesus on to 20 people in your address book then you are ashamed of Him. I get a lot of these from a certain lady that refuses to pay me $80 that she owes me. I'm sorry but don't try to convince me about how much of a Christian you are, when your walk talks louder than your talk talks, but that is another subject.

The next time you get one of these email harvesting messages, look at it closely, go to the properties of that email and look at the header. If that email has been traveling for awhile, you can get hundreds and hundreds of legitimate email addresses from it. Then the innocent recipients cannot understand why they get so much spam, they never give their email addresses out to anyone, but the problem is that their friends, family and acquaintances give their addresses out every time they forward one of these messages to them.

One of my good friends only sends me the really good stuff and I liked this one. So, if you haven't received it yet, here it is:

Just in case you ever get these two environments mixed up, this should make things a little bit clearer.

@ PRISON
you spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell
@ WORK
you spend the majority of your time in an 6X6 cubicle /office

@ PRISON
you get three meals a day, fully paid for
@ WORK
you get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it

@ PRISON
you get time off for good behavior
@WORK
you get more work for good behavior

@ PRISON
the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you
@ WORK
you must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself

@ PRISON
you can watch TV and play games
@ WORK
you could get fired for watching TV and playing games

@ PRISON
you get your own toilet
@ WORK
you have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat

@ PRISON
they allow your family and friends to visit
@ WORK
you aren't even supposed to speak to your family on the phone

@ PRISON
all expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required
@ WORK
you get to pay all your expenses to go to work, then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners

@ PRISON
you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out
@ WORK
you spend most of your time at work wanting to get out and go inside bars

@ PRISON
you must deal with sadistic guards
@ WORK
they are called managers

Now get back to work. You're not getting paid to read Blogs!