I just received an email from one Jude Kamara of Sierra Leone. It seems that her whole family was killed in “the war” and, for some reason, that now entitles ME to receive the sum of $3,500,000.00. This, coupled with the lottery I won a few times last week, means that I see all of you on the other side of easy street.
How do I stop this crap???
Good question. When you determine the answer, please post it for all to share.
Does anyone take those things seriously?
Comment by Theresa — May 23, 2008 @ 2:40 pm
Don’t publish and email address? A friend of mine had a ‘safe’ email address he would hand out to people he trusted. 7 years of spam free emailing later some ditz puts it up on a personal website. He abandoned it 3 months later as he was getting 500+ spam per day. I’ve heard of persons getting even more than that.
Comment by Dark Rowan — May 23, 2008 @ 2:49 pm
It’s weird because I thought that when I set up this (WordPress) blog, I did it in such a way that obfuscated the email address for this very reason…. I guess it’s not perfect and that one gets what one pays for.
Thanks!
Comment by admin — May 23, 2008 @ 2:52 pm
Younger than McCain: Sierra Leone! (Independent since 1961, a “republic” since 1971.)
Comment by ted — May 23, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Stop it? Why would you want to stop it?!
Check out the fun you can have with scammers:
http://www.419eater.com
Comment by jeff — May 23, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
Not only is SPAM the food younger than John McCain, but the SPAM the internet phenomenon is younger than him as well!
Comment by David A.M. Wilensky — May 23, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
You forgot:
YODA is younger than John McCain (So McCain is older than a master Jedi who is more than 800 years old!)…
BATMAN is younger than John McCain,
GONE WITH THE WIND is younger than John McCain,
McCAIN’s fries are younger than John McCain,
Charlie Chaplin’s MODERN TIMES is as old as John McCain (So that’s why McCain is so… modern),
TOM & JERRY are younger than John McCain,
THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE is younger than John McCain,
The discovery of the Structure of DNA is younger than John McCain.
Comment by Pierre (From France, where we follow a lot American elections!) — May 23, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
I don’t know if it would help in your situation, but if you visit a lot of websites that ask for your email address but that you don’t really want to get email from, you could try spamgourmet.com. They let you set up a different email address each time you need to give one. The first few emails from each new address will be forwarded to your real address, so you can confirm it. After that, though, the address will self-destruct so that no new messages can get through. Using it really cut down on my spam, but it’s no good for anything you think you’ll want to get more than a few emails from.
Comment by Lyn — May 23, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
Gmail is lovely to me.
But I admit I love getting those emails. They always make me laugh.
Dear Roxana,
We’re drug dealers in need of hiding $20million but we’ll give you half of it if you hide it in your bank account…
Well okay, bring on the money then, I say (in my head, of course).
Comment by Roxana Farahmand — May 23, 2008 @ 10:48 pm
We HAD to make it. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is just one month younger than candidate John McCain.
Comment by Atlantics — May 24, 2008 @ 8:36 am
The e-mail version of that scam is younger than John McCain, by a few decades.*
However, the scam itself is older than John McCain, by a few decades.
* It’s probably younger than I am.
Comment by Steve S — May 24, 2008 @ 9:46 am
How to stop it? Accept the deal – they will suck you dry so thoroughly that you can’t afford an email address anymore. Or a computer.
Life is simple.
Comment by Rob van Kan — May 24, 2008 @ 10:41 am
I found your site through (wonder of wonders) a column in The Economist.
The title of the McCain piece this week? Indiana McCain and the Election of Doom.
Comment by Eleutheria — May 24, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
Is that the lady with cancer?
How can you not give money to the lady who lost her family and now has cancer? I mean she has CANCER!!! nobody with cancer can be lying.
Cancer is older than John McCain. But just barely.
Comment by emily blake — May 24, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
I think you’re getting the spam because even though you have it listed as tips at thingsyoungerthanmccain dot com, when you click that, it actually opens up a new email (on my MAC anyway) that works. Try making the email NOT a clickable link in order to reduce the comment form spam.
Comment by Amie — May 25, 2008 @ 10:08 am
thanks arnie – but what’s weird is that i thought i installed a plug-in for the blog that was supposed to do some behind the scenes encoding of that… i guess i need to look into it more.
thanks again for writing.
Comment by admin — May 25, 2008 @ 10:22 am
You should remove the “mailto:” link on this site. Bots, compareable to those of search engines, scan pages for matching email addresses and especially mailto links
Hope it helps,
Comment by Tobias — May 26, 2008 @ 10:39 am