OK, everyone knows that email spammers are pathetic, but I'm not sure everyone is aware of the extent of it.
Once upon a time, I used a certain email address. This was when I was about 11. I was young then, and I basically plastered the address all over the internet. I gave it out to any site that asked, used it for signups, etc. I started using the address sooner than when I was 11, but eventually the quantities of spam I was receiving daily was just unbearable. So, one day, I said enough is enough, got a new address, and put my old, spammed up address to rest. Also to note, this address was tied to one of my dad's domain names, a 4 letter one in fact, so it was a great address.
Fast forward 6 years. I now own the 4 letter domain that my old email address was at, so just yesterday I thought about re-creating the address on my server just to see what was doing there, and if it was still receiving spam. I was CERTAIN that after 6 years of no use, after not even existing, the address would not be receiving any spam. GOD was I wrong. So, I went into my server control panel, and created the old address on the domain that I now own. I start checking it, and to my unpleasant fucking surprise, IT IS STILL RECEIVING ABOUT 4 SPAMS PER MINUTE. Think how unbelievable that is. For SIX years spammers using the address were getting their emails returned, and the address wasn't in circulation for SIX years. I found it unbelievable.
The bottom line in that story is spammers are pretty fregin' stupid. Wherever they found/bought/acquired the address from, they were wasting their resources to send spam to a 6 year old, non-existent address. I imagine most of the addresses on their lists are that old, so I don't honestly see how they could be doing well if they can't even acquire a list of real email addresses.
Anyway, right now it looks like I'm going to have to retire this address FOR GOOD and just eat it. It's ashame though, so maybe in 10 years?
Ross
You mentioned how they were wasting their resources to send mail to that address, and I think that's the underlying truth that all spamming is based on - the fact that sending e-mail is free and uses a negligible amount of resources (for all intents and purposes, zero). So the spammers' lists just keep growing and growing, and it makes little difference if the mails bounce or not. They figure, why not send mail to addresses that haven't worked for years? It's all free anyway.
This is why one of the ideas to combat spam was to add a tiny fee to sending e-mail. Even if it's only like one cent per e-mail, that could be enough to destroy spammers' profit margins. But implementing such a plan would require a huge amount of time and coordination across the net - so it'll probably never happen.
d2312564 (Updated )
That's a really good point. I remember my dad told me they were looking in to implementing the small charge for sending email many years ago, but it never materialized. It seems like it would stop spammers, but it would cause so many problems with mass NON spam emailings like Newgrounds does each night, and other services.
In my opinion, the spam spawns from the pathetic ease of obtaining a free email account with Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and MANY more. I think there's an easy way to fix this. All free email service providers should be required by LAW to get the physical mailing address and phone number of all account openers. I don't know how they would authenticate them, but they can do an automatic calling code or something. Because it's obvious if spammers were aware that email providers had their personal information, they wouldn't want to be caught red handed doign something illegal.
But yeah, again, you make a good point. I guess they have nothing to lose by keeping sending mail to the address, and also, list sellers keep it on the list probably so they can boost their "email address count" when selling lists.
Thanks for the comment.