Well this was the week this was...that- way
back in 1998
I discovered all about spamming.
I was a culprit, unsuspecting, but no less a culprit.
I had received in my inbox an e-mail classified sheet, from Cyprus
PostMaster advertising various Cyprus resources. It invited you to submit an advert and so
I did as follows:
Window on Cyprus is the place to get info.
Do you want to Dive, Bungee jump, sail, buy a yacht, crew on
a boat, go flying, buy sell or rent a property, go camping , go fishing, buy a book, meet an alien in Cyprus or a Cypriot
in outer space, become a friend of the Cyprus Donkeys, find an alternative treatment that's a small selection of what we
offer, do come and see us soon..
There was of course a catch. It would cost me, but I worked out that
the"6,000 interested Cypriots world-wide" were entitled to 4.6 cents each of our
money to learn about Window on Cyprus and signed up for 1 issue.
Then I learned first hand what Spam is. My inbox was flooded with pleas
of help from people wishing to unsubscribe from my Spam !
I wrote to them all explaining that ' I do not have a mailing list'
(except of people who request information from us, but that is top secret and would never
be used for any other purpose than to provide that information.) and that I was sorry .
The worst part of the nightmare came at 1am when we had just got to the bottom of the
pile, checked the inbox again to make sure we had finished and found it full.
Our own host and others were saying things such as;