Samples of spam received, part 1

This page lists, for the perusal of the public, some of the spam (bulk junk email, unsolicited commercial email, etc.) received here. Spammers steal other people's resources for their advertising, so please don't do business with them. This is page 1; page 2 is here, page 3 is here, page 4 is here, and page 5 is here.

• Thomson Learning (a textbook publisher). This was sent to other people in my department as well; don't be misled by the personalization, and note the classic feature of spam, the "remove instructions", at the end. Contacts: represource@itped.com and theresa.bisbal@thomsonlearning.com.
• Why I will never do business with The Copy Shop (6 spams). I complained to the provider (aol.com) after receiving the first one on my usual account. But a copy of it, and four more later ones (the last 6 months later) were mailed to another account. Complain to Erica595@aol.com. Since putting the above up, I have gotten two more spams from the same person, now to my usual account again. One of these includes also a drop box to complain to: Copy-Shop@worldnet.att.net. Repeated complaints to aol.com have done nothing to stop the spam; the only change is that there are now remove instructions. Here is yet another one. Here, here are two more, and here is another one, still claiming to be from Erica595@aol.com, but now giving the shop's email as thecopyshop@qwest.net.
• "Teach For America" has sent three spams: Spam 1, Spam 2, Spam 3. I have complained to their providers after every one. They don't learn, do they? (And, given this, do you trust them to teach?) Contacts from the spams: Tfacampdir@aol.com, mmatheny@teachforamerica.org, Tfawestrec@aol.com, echeung@teachforamerica.org, and mvasquez@teachforamerica.org. Here is who they are according to Sam Spade. Contacts from there: webmaster@TEACHFORAMERICA.ORG, domreg@MINDSPRING.COM, and domain.billing@MINDSPRING.COM.
• KTS software. Complain to kts@kts1.com, The contact people for the domain involved (according to "whois" at Sam Spade) are jfrith@VANTAGES.COM, johncousins@USA.NET, and contact@AHNET.NET.
• Spamvertising for infostry.com. Contacts from the spam and the spamvertised web site: julie@infostry.com, and support@infostry.com. Contact people for domain involved (according to "whois" at Sam Spade): nick@INFOSTRY.COM, and mpinelis@HMC.EDU.
• Inkinen.com, an "Executive Search Firm in Honolulu". Contacts from the spam and the spamvertised web site: inkinen@leka.aloha.net, inkinen@aloha.net, and jobs@inkinen.com. Contact people for domain involved (according to "whois" at Sam Spade): jagsalud@ISDI-HI.COM, ssonoda@ISDI-HI.COM, and lmakimot@ISDI-HI.COM.
• FacultyBooks.com, someone wanting to me to sell them my extra textbooks. Sorry, I will take my business elsewhere. Contacts from the spam and the spamvertised web site: fb1@argontech.net and customerservice@facultybooks.com. Contact people for domain involved (according to "whois" at Sam Spade): buydept@AIRMAIL.NET, and admin@WEBZONE.NET. Some time later, I received through the postal service an ad for this company which contained the toll free telephone number 800-527-1016.
• This spammer, larson@inuae.com, sent out a CV. Please don't hire him.
• A local (Eugene) spammer, Piotr Buciarski, piotrek@searchgenie.com, who emailed me over 300 lines of html code (for a one sentence spam!). Here is the spam, and here is some of what "whois" (from Sam Spade) has to say about the spammer's domain. Contact: mark@SEARCHGENIE.COM.
• A repeat software spammer, Harmonic Software Inc., harmonic@omatrix.com (from his spam 1 and his spam 2), sales@omatrix.com (from his spam 2), or also hostmaster@ADHOST.COM (according to "whois" from Sam Spade).
• Experts Exchange emails me ads. Here is the latest, from newsletter@EXPERTS-EXCHANGE.COM. I once joined it, but never gave it permission to send advertising to my email account. Now I will never use it again. Sam Spade provided this information, including several other places to complain about their business practices: admin@EXPERTS-EXCHANGE.COM and steve@EXPERTS-EXCHANGE.COM.
• A "bulletproof" spamming service, joan555@earthlink.net and info@bulkisp.nu, who, as his spam shows, also can't spell.
• A spam from amyjohnstone@shop826.com, who apparently wants me to shop in southern Florida, diagonally across the continent. It isn't clear, because whatever is being advertised is encoded in a way I can't read. (A lot of good this spam did!) Here is what Sam Spade said about the originating domain, shop826.com.
• Another porn spam, from a nonexistent email address but for which the spamvertised web site gives the email address edtalvy@ix.netcom.com (information from Sam Spade).
• I was sent this spam, from Investors@investor.com, apparently attempting to manipulate the price of the stock of Akamai Technologies, Inc. Sam Spade provided this information on Akamai Technologies, including these contacts: hostmaster@AKAMAI.COM and rmather@AKAMAI.COM. Clicking on this link will express a negative view of the spamvertised stock.
• This spam, from CATHY10@163.net, advertised a web page that has since been taken down. I have not yet received any response to my complaint to 163.net about the spammer on their system. Sam Spade provided this information on 163.net, including these contacts: rkpmak@YAHOO.COM, xqch@163.NET, and xinfei2@PUBLIC.GUANGZHOU.GD.CN.
• Another textbook spammer, spam from permission@custombook.com, real address selstadlori@custombook.com. This spam asks for "permission" to send further information. It is still unsolicited commercial email, so still spam. I was too busy to do anything with it for some time. Then I sent a message saying: "You are a spammer. Since you have sent unsolicited commercial email, I will never ever do business with you or your company. You are not any less a spammer because your mesage asks for permission to send more email: you do not have permission to send me any commercial email." This got this reply, with subject "Information You Requested"! The mail addresses are at custombook.com (email: safstrom@COURIER.COM); the web pages are at anthologypro.com (email: safstrom@COURIER.COM) (information from Sam Spade). This last company claims to be part of Courier Corporation; its web page yielded the address marketing@courier.com.
• This spam tries to get you to join some organization, with the promise of lots of money, and apparently to get the spammer credit for referrals. The spamvertised web page has lots of contact addresses: support@cashfiesta.com, adpoints@cashfiesta.com, techsupport@cashfiesta.com, abuse@cashfiesta.com, ads@cashfiesta.com, webmaster@cashfiesta.com, and jobs@cashfiesta.com.
• A spam for accepting credit cards, supposedly regardless of credit. Calling the toll-free number in the spam gave a long recorded message, ending with instructions to go to "www.have-money.com" (contact: barbararoos@email.com), which in turn forwards you to "www.work-from-home.net/broos/" (contact: RBERG@INETPORT.COM) (all information from Sam Spade).
• A spammed newsletter about Mathematica, from mailer@mercury.wolfram.com, and with the additional contact addresses mathwire@wolfram.com and mweditor@wolfram.com contained in the body of the spam. Contacts for the apparent originator, "wolfram.com" (according to Sam Spade) include netadmin@WOLFRAM.COM and jeanb@WRI.COM. I will be considering Maple instead in the future.
• Two essentially identical spams, apparently sent 6 seconds apart, Spam 1 and Spam 2, from a mathematical crank waarlock@hotmail.com promoting a web page which, among other things, claims to have an elementary proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. My copies were sent to an assortment of other mathematicians (email addresses X'd out in the headers to protect them from address harvesters), the same list for both spams.
• A spam from announce@leisurewebcams.com advertising webcams. The spam encourages its recipients to contact the "marketing director", cy@LeisureWebcams.com, and other searching turned up the email address info@leisurewebcams.com. Here is contact information for the spamvertised domain, according to Sam Spade.
• A spam of over 600 lines, advertising some unspecified financial scheme. Its headers said variously it was from secrets144@lycos.com and secrets@gemini3power.zzn.com. The text of the spam said to email kaizee1@gemini3power.zzn.com. Here is contact information for the domain on which the spammer apparently lives, according to Sam Spade.
• I received this spam, apparently attempting to manipulate the price of the stock with symbol "PMIC". Clicking on this link will express a negative view of the spamvertised stock.
• A spam advertising long distance telephone calls, from someone wanting me to "drop my mose". Its headers gave the email addresses 29w3PtcZq@naseej.com, 5cents4YOU@hotmail.com, and usr6800@host11.ikedainsatsu.co.jp. A complaint to naseej.com via abuse.net bounced, on the grounds that the mailbox was full. So I looked at Sam Spade getting this information, and therefore complained to hostmaster@NASEEJ.COM.SA.
• Two spams, Spam 1 and Spam 2, advertising a conference called the "International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation". The headers said they came from issac2001-owner@zib.de and directed replies to issac2001@orcca.on.ca. The text of the spams contained in addition the email addresses Gilles.Villard@ens-lyon.fr and mourrain@sophia.inria.fr. My research has never had anything to do with the topics of the spamvertized conference, and the two spams were sent to my current email address, and to an old, no longer used, address; this suggests that the spammers might have harvested as many email addresses of mathematicians as they could, from whatever sources they could get their hands on.
• A spam by somebody who claims he will pay me for typing solutions to calculus problems, from (according to the headers) Evtogo@aol.com and with replies requested to p_hamati@hotmail.com.
• A spam advertising some print cartridge business in Georgia, with email replies requested to DPRINT2000@aol.com.
• Spam claiming to be from "a fellow student" (I am not a student) at Whiteangel2711@aol.com (who, however, gives no name; in particular, there is no evidence that the spammer is even at the same university that I am). The spam asks for help with a calculus problem, but seems to have been sent indiscriminantly, with no regard for whether the recipient is in a calculus class (or, indeed, any class). This spammer also can't spell.