[Histonet] Re: Illegal Spam

[Robert Richmond]

Jan Shivers notes: >>Ever since I subscribed to the Histonet, I've
been receiving a lot of spam every day (mostly from people in
Africa/Europe, either telling me I've won the lottery or asking me for
my bank account number so that they can smuggle money out of their
country).<<

I don't think this has anything to do with Histonet. What are called
419 scams (pronounced four-one-nine, apparently named after the
relevant section of the Nigerian penal code) apparently originate in
Nigeria, where they constitute the country's third biggest source of
foreign exchange. Although they're easy for human eyes to recognize,
they're artfully designed to slip through spam filters. - Gmail has
extremely efficient spam filters - since they electronically read all
your e-mails in order o send you relevant advertising) - and almost
nothing but 419 scams slips through.

Hormel, which makes the canned meat product originally called Spam,
has taken a creative approach - every time you go to Gmail's spam box
to dump your 419 mail, you get a link to a recipe for Spam. Hormel
clearly understands the ancient P.R. adage that there is no such thing
as bad publicity.

Bob Richmond
Spamurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN (but born in Hawai'i, which consumes 10 times as much
Spam per capita as the other 49)