RE: [T3] Buyer scams?

["Toby Erkson" <air_cooled_nut@pobox.com>]

>... I 
>have zero trust in any of those privacy statements most companies  
>advertise nowadays...

I always read the privacy policy and the vast majority of them read just like
a bank or credit card policy:  They will give your info to their
associates/partners.  Likely, those people will be doing the same.  And thus
your "private data" is in every marketer's list.  The only "privacy policy"
that you can likely trust is by small businesses and individuals who
explicitly state that they don't share your information with ANYBODY!  An
example is our privacy statement for the DDB
(http://www.theddb.com/new/legal_disclaimer.html bottom of page).  Such folks
tend to have a short, easy to read privacy policy.  If you see a policy
consisting of more than one paragraph and/or you have to scroll through a page
or more of policy then -- in my experience -- your information will be
disseminated to others.  Period.

My recommendation for spam is to get email through a well-used provider.  With
so many customers they need to keep happy they *tend* to use several anti-spam
filters, plus maintain them, so the number you receive is fairly low.  Having
done it myself, it's a PITA to admin. your own anti-spam software due to the
maintenance and every changing methods they use.  I also used SPAMASSASSIN and
it worked very well, if you kept on top of it so it would "learn"; not a
software app. I would recommend to non-computer type people or those who don't
know Unix.

My emails go thru www.pobox.com, which forwards them to my real email addy,
and they have an assortment of filters that you can customize (to a point).
I'm very happy with their service and the nice thing is, if an email meets the
criteria of a spam, it is BOUNCED!  That means that the jerk who sent the spam
gets a message back stating the email they sent it to does not exist ;-)  Many
spam filters, especially those that you'd find in email clients (like
Outlook), simply accept the email and delete it.  As far as the spammer is
concerned, the email addy is valid because it did "go through" :-(

For the most part, there's no need to announce to this list the "latest scam"
or virus.  Every announcement made has been old news to most of us and a year
or two late ;-)

  Toby Erkson
  http://www.icbm.org/ 

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