spam/avoidance of

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_idirect.com>
Date: Thu Jan 31 10:56:25 2002

>Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:

> That's fine for my friends. I can contact you.
> But what about my CUSTOMERS?
> Somebody who I've never met wants to buy. But my ISP that hosts my domain
> bounces his mail.
> Fred Cisin cisin_at_xenosoft.com
> XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
> PO Box 1236 (510) 558-9366
> Berkeley, CA 94701-1236
> NOTE: My ISP is having difficulties. If you have problems reaching me at
> this e-mail address, you can leave a message at:
> fcisin_at_merritt.edu

Jerome Fine replies:

I just suggested adding 4 random characters (36 ** 4 = 1,679,616) to my
e-mail address. In your case <cisinpr5a_at_xenosoft.com> could be an
example. When too much spam starts to find your way, then change.
A fall back (either permanent or just when the current one is deactivated)
is to replace the 4 characters in front of _at_ with the current 4 digit year.
So my reply e-mail address could be <jhfinec6kz_at_idirect.com> with a
fall back of <jhfine2001_at_idirect.com> up until the end of last month.

This year would be the next value. This would not work if everyone
used the same replacement characters, but that could be any simple
description without actually naming it so the letters could be picked
out by a search program. The benefit of the 4 digit year is that it
changes automatically every twelve months. Is that sufficient?

And if only a few thousand individuals use it right now, it should be
very effective just for us if we don't advertise it.

I am probably going to change ISP shortly and I will need a new e-mail
address in any case. So I would like to be more prepared? Any one
else also have a suggestion?

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
Received on Thu Jan 31 2002 - 10:56:25 GMT

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