Ah, a new computer with Windows XP aboard. And all that free stuff that comes loaded with it. It’s a glory to behold. Want to make sure that you get automatic Windows updates (to fix their security hole du jour)? No problem.
Wait a minute. There is a little message popping up at the bottom of the right-hand side of my screen. It implores me to sign up for .NET from Microsoft so I can get better service from them and all sorts of other neat stuff. Well, trusting soul that I am (naïve, stupid also), I sign up using the email account that I use for the web (affectionately called my spam account). I make sure to read the privacy statement and that all the boxes that say I want automatic email from them or their “affiliates” are unchecked (or checked, as the case might be to confuse the average bear). I get a confirming email telling me all the virtues of .NET and how to use it.
Within an hour of registering, I start to get a steady stream of spam messages. These are from real or bogus Hotmail accounts (another Microsoft feature). I delete these. I get more each day, numbering about 10 a batch and repeating every couple of hours.
Pretty pissed, I go online and cancel my .NET account, but the proverbial feline has escaped the cloth container. Spam continues unabated for days. Well, I think, time to go on the Internet and contact Microsoft to tell them about this. I try looking at www.microsoft.com and about every link I can see. Ah, here’s a Help section, there’s a Contact Us section. Here’s the joker: there is no way to send them feedback or a message UNLESS you are a .NET or Hotmail client! But that was what got me in trouble in the first place. I dig and I dig and I find nada, bupkis, nothing.
So, I go to my ISP’s website and find out how to complain about spam to them. I follow all the instructions and send them a message. They reply that the emails I have been getting are not from their server and that if I have problems, I should contact the server of the offenders. Now, here is a confusing point: My ISP provider (mail server) says that they screen for spam. So it seems reasonable to me that they would want me to report spam that got through their filter. Hmmm. Guess not.
So, I go to the Hotmail website and find that a non-subscriber can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the information. Being a good citizen in the war against Spams of Mass Destruction (this has got to be an Iraqi plot), I send Hotmail an email. They send a generic reply filled with bland advice and warnings, bless their little warped hearts. They say they will get back to me. Yeah, right.
As a final act of revenge, I am going to forward each and every spam email I get with a Hotmail sender to Hotmail’s abuse address. Hope they like them.
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