GratuitousApplesauce

So I'm sending out emails to a group of members of an association, as Bcc's and I'm starting to get a few reports that some people aren't getting some of the emails. These people are using Hotmail and Yahoo addresses.

So thinking that the Hotmail and Yahoo spam filters are catching my email and identifying them as spam because they're being sent blind to a group, I decide to try and help those people find their bulk mail folders and and mark my emails as "not spam".

I decided that the best way, for non computer types would be to send a screen shot attachment of Hotmail and Yahoo pages to show them exactly what to click on.

I signed up for a Hotmail account and was able to send something fairly easily that ended up in the "junk mail" folder. I took some screen shots showing where to click so my emails would be considered safe and go directly to their inboxes.

Then I logged on to Yahoo, using one of my disposable yahoo accounts and discovered that it was difficult to send an email that would show up in Yahoo's "bulk mail" folder.

That's when I decided to try and get some real spam sent to the address. I replied using the yahoo address to some of my own spam that had accumulated recently. Couldn't reply, these spams were designed to have links clicked on to confirm my real email address and I didn't want to do that.

So I did a search on Google and found a site where someone was inviting people to sign up for their spam. I can't imagine anyone who would be stupid enough to do this, but I did. I clicked on a couple of dozen areas of interest and sat back expecting the my yahoo bulk mail box would become flooded. A few hours later and only two emails, neither of them ending up in the bulk mail folder.

I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to get some spam sent to me.

RevMatt

:P You can have some of mine!

It turns out the secret to getting spam is in the longevity of the account. My Yahoo account was set up in 95, I believe, or somewhere there abouts. I get 20-30 bits of spam daily. My beer.com and sympatico account are both much newer, and, until very recently, were almost completely spam free. I can only presume they will gradually catch up with yahoo.

GratuitousApplesauce

Yeah, I think you're right and I've observed that with my other email accounts. But I thought for sure that directly signing up to spammer's lists would yield me a pile of immediate spam that I could use to view Yahoo's bulk mail folder and take the screen shot I wanted.

Maybe I can Photoshop it.

iNeedhelp

That's right. The best thing to do, (if you don't want spam). is to create a new account with whatever you're using every 3 or 4 years.

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gordguide

The secret is to act on the messages they send. Open them, read them, click on a link, thus making you an active idiot. Then you get some spam, son.

Secondly, I'm not sure what you signed up to, but my guess is the real jerks aren't getting your address. This is what you do:

Post the address you want spammed online. Doesn't matter where, really, they will find it with their bots. This forum would probably be just as good as anywhere I would think, but if that doesn't seem good enough, then just post somewhere more public, and preferably American. I dunno, maybe a movie review site.

Get some usenet account, post your eMail address there in a post (any post).

You might not like this one, but it's a spam gateway if I ever saw one. Join some porno site that only requires "an email address" for your "free access". Spam-O-Rama, buddy. You don't have to actually view the content, the signup is enough.

HowEver

I don't think spam receipt is this predictable. I've has some Hotmail and Yahoo accounts for years which have never had a spam message, and some which were nailed early and get spammed every day to this day.

Yahoo is also very successful at predicting which messages should go into bulk, more so than some others. I'm finding that GMail is similarly adept.

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