HotMail is the Root of All Evil

My conclusion is that HotMail is not a service that I will use for free email. The amount of spams is too great, and the spam filtering options, while a gallant try, are not ones that I like. The best filtering option that I can recommend is for HotMail to secure their user lists so that a HotMail account will not collect spam just because it exists as this account did. Remember, I turned off every listing option that I could find, and did not publicize this address anywhere at all; I sent a total of one email address from it to one of my other accounts that gets 1 or two spams per week (a much more tolerable ratio). This spamming issue does not appear to be present on Yahoo or any other free email service that I have tried. Since I could find no way to cancel this HotMail account, I am forced to let it fill up and be automatically deleted. Bye Bye HotMail!

What they say...

Some of the disclaimers I've seen on spams lately are pretty ridiculous. Many claim compliance with a US federal bill that was quashed and never signed into law. Many more claimed that I opted in for spam, which is patently false (would I maintain the Where to Send Your Spam Complaints page or this page if I opted in?). Some of them reference US Federal bill S. 1618, H.R. 4176 or H.R. 3888; these bills were quashed in 1998!. Others mention compliance with H.R. 3113; this bill was not acted upon and dropped in 2000. In short, there is no US legislation that I know of that got to the President's desk for a signature (none of them are law). See here and here for more details on these and other failed (and pending) bills.

The most important note here is that adding these texts onto your emails (I'm talking to the spammers here...) does not prevent me from tracking you down and sending a note to your service providers requesting that your account be cancelled due to spam. If you don't want to be ridiculed or plonked as a spammer, don't spam me.

The great majority of these were received in the HotMail account referenced above. You've probably seen most or all of these before, but here are some spam disclaimers that I've seen recently...

5/31/02, 5/29/02, 5/23/02, 5/14/02 (twice), 5/12/02, 5/8/02, 5/5/02, 4/23/02

To be removed from our "in house" mailing list CLICK HERE and you will automatically be removed from future mailings. You have received this email by either requesting more information on one of our sites or someone may have used your email address. If you received this email in error, please accept our apologies.

5/31/02, 5/28/02, 5/27/02 (twice), 5/22/02, 5/21/02, 5/19/02, 5/17/02, 5/16/02 (twice), 5/12/02, 5/11/02, 5/6/02, 5/1/02, 4/29/02, 4/28/02, 4/20/02, 4/17/02, 4/12/02, 4/6/02, 4/3/02

This is a free notification service. If you do not wish to be informed about our "no obligation" services and products or if you received this in error please click here to be removed.

5/31/02, 5/3/02, 4/28/02

This email has been screened and filtered by our in house "OPT-OUT" system in compliance with state laws.

5/31/02 (twice), 5/27/02 (twice), 5/26/02, 5/25/02 (three times), 5/24/02 (twice), 5/23/02 (twice), 5/21/02 (twice), 5/20/02 (three times!), 5/19/02 (twice), 5/18/02 (twice)

This message is sent in compliance of the new e-mail bill: SECTION 301 Per Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S. 1618, Further transmissions to you by the sender of this email maybe stopped at no cost to you by clicking on the remove link and entering your email address. ultrafreehosting.com 2110 ne 39th st A2 Fort Lauderdale FL 33308 954-648-4477 You have received this email by either requesting more information on one of our sites or someone may have used your email address. If you received this email in error, please accept our apologies

5/31/02 (three times), 5/30/02 (three times), 5/29/02 (twice), 5/27/02 (three times), 5/26/02, 5/25/02 (three times), 5/24/02 (five times!), 5/23/02 (twice), 5/22/02, 5/21/02 (three times), 5/20/02 (twice), 5/19/02 (three times), 5/18/02 (twice), 5/17/02 (twice), 5/16/02 (five times!), 5/15/02 (twice), 5/14/02 (twice), 5/12/02 (three times), 5/11/02 (four times!), 5/10/02, 5/8/02 (twice), 5/7/02, 5/4/02, 5/3/02 (twice), 5/2/02, 5/1/02 (twice), 4/30/02 (twice), 4/28/02 (three times!), 4/25/02, 4/24/02, 4/23/02, 4/22/02, 4/20/02 (twice), 4/19/02, 4/18/02, 4/17/02, 4/15/02, 4/14/02, 4/13/02, 4/12/02

This email was sent to the owner of the following Account/Username: ryuser

5/28/02, 5/4/02, 5/2/02, 4/24/02, 4/23/02, 4/20/02, 4/15/02, 4/14/02, 4/5/02, 4/4/02, 4/3/02, 4/2/02, 3/25/02, 3/23/02

Please know that we do not want to send you information regarding our special offers if you do not wish to receive it.

5/27/02, 5/22/02

You have been sent this email because you or someone acting as you has added your email address to our opt-in mailing list.

5/27/02, 2/8/02

This message is sent in compliance of the new e-mail bill: SECTION 301. "Per Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S. 1618, further transmissions to you by the sender of this email may be stopped at no cost to you"

5/27/02, 5/25/02

This message is never sent unsolicited. GLE Media has been given the right to market to you through our Web site partners and their privacy policies. If you feel that your email was obtained by error, or would like to opt-out of receiving future offers please click here and hit send.

5/26/02, 5/21/02

Note: This is not SPAM. You have recieved this email because you or someone using this address has subscribed to our mailing list. If this is incorrect or you would like to unsubscribe from our lists click here.

5/26/02, 5/24/02, 5/12/02

If you feel we have sent you this e-mail in error, we apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused. To be removed from our database please click below to send an email. You will be immediately removed from any future mailings. REMOVE ME At the time of this mailing the return email address is a legitimate return email address that was signed up for with the express purpose of receiving all undeliverable emails as well as remove requests. On occasion the return email address provided may become disrupted by the efforts of, what we define as, Internet terrorists. This message is sent in compliance of the new email bill section 301. Per Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S. 1618, further transmissions to you by the sender of this email may be stopped at no cost to you. This message is not intended for residents in the State of WA, CA & VA Screening of addresses has been done to the best of our technical ability. If you are a Washington, Virginia, or California resident please remove your

5/26/02, 5/25/02, 5/18/02, 5/17/02

You received this e-mail because you are registered at one of our Web sites, or on one of our partners' sites.

5/26/02, 5/20/02 (twice), 5/19/02, 5/18/02, 5/3/02

Your email address was obtained from a purchased list, Reference # [varies]. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, please Click here and enter your name into the remove box. If you have previously unsubscribed and are still receiving this message, you may email our Abuse Control Center, or call 1-888-763-2497, or write us at: NoSpam, 6484 Coral Way, Miami, FL, 33155

5/25/02

You are receiving this email because you are an e-gold.com account member. Under Bill s. 1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th Congress this letter cannot be considered spam as long as the sender includes contact information and removal instructions. To be removed from this mailing list just reply to this email with remove in the subjct line.

5/25/02

Hi there. A friend of yours gave us your email address. They asked us to invite you to join our mailing list for free White Papers. You can choose to not join this mailing list in two ways. First, don't reply to this email. We won't send you the current White Paper. Second, send us a "Remove" reply, and we won't contact you again, even if another friend of yours asks us to. We put you on the "Never Contact" list, which we do not edit.

5/24/02

You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the AutoQuote mailing list.

5/24/02

This is a limited-time offer and may never be repeated again.

5/23/02, 5/14/02

If you have previously cancelled and are still receiving this message or need to speak with us regarding this email, you may call our ABUSE CONTROL CENTER immediately Toll Free at 1-888-425-6788 or email nomore@tgifcam.com , You may also write us at nomore 9835-16 Lake Worth Road #227 - Lake Worth , FL 33467

5/23/02, 5/20/02, 5/18/02, 4/16/02, 2/11/02

You are receiving this special offer because you have provided permission to receive email communications regarding special online promotions or offers.

5/22/02, 5/11/02

You are receiving this letter because you have expressed an interest in receiving information about online business opportunities. If this is erroneous then please accept my most sincere apology. This is a one-time mailing, so no removal is necessary.

5/22/02, 5/18/02, 5/12/02, 4/28/02, 3/31/02

Our goal is to only target individuals who would like to take advantage of our offers. If you'd like to be removed from our mailing list, please click on the link below. You will be removed immediately and automatically from all of our future mailings.

5/21/02

We were given your e-mail address by one of our partner websites as someone who is interested in working from home or home-based business opportunities. If this is not the case, or if you would rather not receive our publication, simply reply to this message and you will be promptly removed from our subscriber list. ... Our E-mail is never sent unsolicited. If you believe you have recieved this message in error or simply wish to be removed from our subscriber list, simply reply to this message and you will be removed promply.

5/20/02, 5/14/02, 4/26/02

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS: This message is sent in compliance with the proposed BILL section 301, Paragraph (a) (2) (c) of S.1618. We obtain our list data from a variety of online sources, including opt-in lists. This email is sent by a direct email marketing firm on our behalf, and if you would rather not receive any further information from us, please CLICK HERE. In this way, you can instantly "opt-out" from the list your email address was obtained from, whether this was an "opt-in" or otherwise. Please accept our apologies if this message has reached you in error. Please allow 5-10 business days for your email address to be removed from all lists in our control. Meanwhile, simply delete any duplicate emails that you may receive and rest assured that your request to be taken off this list will be honored. If you have previously requested to be taken off this list and are still receiving this message, you may call us at 1-(888) 817-9902, or write to: Abuse Control Center, 7657 Winnetka Ave., Canoga Park, CA 91306

5/20/02, 5/13/02, 5/12/02, 2/19/02

This e-mail advertisement is being sent to you because you or someone you know has submitted your e-mail to one of our websites.

5/20/02

You have been sent this promotion because you agreed to receive special promos from Cool Ideas. To be removed from this list please click here. Thank you .This message is sent in compliance of the new email bill HR 1910. Under Bill HR 1910 passed by the 106th US Congress on May 24, 1999. This message cannot be considered Spam as long as we include the way To be removed. Per Section HR 1910.

5/20/02, 5/16/02, 5/12/02, 5/9/02 (twice)

Your e-mail address has been verified as one that has requested information on these offers. All e-mail addresses have been double verified. If this message has come to you in error, Please click REMOVE ME and your name will be removed from all future mailings.

5/19/02, 5/10/02

We respect your online time and privacy and honor all requests to stop further e-mails.

5/19/02, 5/15/02

This mail is never sent unsolicited. This is a Bigsoftonline mailing! You subscribed to receive this at Bigsoftonline.com.

5/19/02

This message is sent in compliance of the new e-mail bill: SECTION 301 Per Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S. 1618, Further transmissions to you by the sender of this email maybe stopped at no cost to you by entering your email address to the form in this email and clicking submit to be automatically removed. To be Removed from our Opt-In mailing list. Please enter your email address in the provided box below and click remove, thank you.

5/18/02, 4/2/02, 4/1/02, 3/16/02

You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Opt-In America Mailing List.

5/18/02, 5/17/02, 5/16/02, 5/12/02, 5/8/02 (twice), 5/6/02, 5/5/02, 5/4/02, 4/22/02, 2/8/02

The following message was sent to you as non opt-in subscriber. We will continue to bring you valuable offers on the products and services that interest you most.

5/17/02

You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the AutoQuote mailing list.

5/16/02

First, I wouldn't be e-mailing you if you had not signed up for a product that I am affiliated with and gave out your e-mail address. Second, you should know better than to give your e-mail address out to people you don't know.

5/16/02, 5/15/02, 5/9/02

This message is sent in compliance of the new e-mail bill: SECTION 301. Per Section 301, paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S. 1618. This message is not Spam as long as you are provided with a way to remove your name from this mailing list. All further transmissions to you from me may be stopped at no cost to you by sending a Reply to this letter with the word "remove" in the Subject line. Or just click back. We ALWAYS respect REMOVE requests!

5/14/02

You are receiving this Special Offer as a valued member.

5/13/02, 5/11/02, 4/15/02, 4/4/02, 3/16/02

You have received this email by either requesting more information on one of our investment opportunities or someone may have used your email address. To be removed from our mailing list and to be automatically removed from any future mailings- Go to the link above and then go the bottom of the website, and Submit a Request for Opt-Out!

5/13/02, 5/12/02, 3/14/02, 2/14/02

You are receiving this email because you registered at one of our partner sites, and agreed to receive gifts and special offers that may be of interest to you.

5/13/02

THIS MAIL IS NEVER SENT UNSOLICITED. You are recieving this mail because you visited a website and opted to recieve it.

5/13/02, 5/2/02

This email ad is being sent in full compliance with U.S. Senate Bill 1618, Title #3, section 301. We honor all removal requests.

5/12/02, 3/16/02, 2/18/02

This message is in full compliance with U.S. Federal requirements for commercial email under bill S.1618 Title lll, Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) passed by the 105th U.S. Congress and cannot be considered SPAM since it includes a remove mechanism.

5/12/02

This e-mail is sent in compliance with strict anti-abuse and NO SPAM regulations. Your address was collected as a result of posting to a link, a classified ad,a message to my FFA Page, you have sent me an E-mail recently. This message is sent in compliance of the new email Bill HR 1910. Under Bill HR 1910 passed by the 106th US Congress on May 24, 1999, this message cannot be considered SPAM as long as I include a valid return address and the way to be removed. Thanks for your time."

5/11/02

You're receiving this message because of a request you made either through one of our sites or one of our affiliate partners. To unsubscribe, click here. We reconcile our database daily; your request will be processed immediately. enstant Delivery o 12222 South 1000 East o Draper, UT 84020-8278 Copyright©2002. All rights reserved worldwide.

5/11/02, 5/7/02, 4/11/02, 2/5/02

This announcement is intended for PC users who asked to be kept informed about new developments in Windows technology. We apologize for any email you may have inadvertently received.

5/9/02, 4/13/02, 3/29/02, 3/22/02

STILL GETTING MAIL EVEN AFTER REQUESTING REMOVAL? Remember to include ALL of your email addresses. Sometimes people forget they've subscribed or registered with more than one address. Include in the subject line the addresses your received this message. Any Vulgarity will be filtered and your request for removal will be deleted

5/7/02, 5/3/02, 4/28/02, 4/19/02, 4/16/02, 4/6/02

You received this e-mail because you have requested these offers.

5/7/02, 5/5/02, 5/1/02 (twice), 4/18/02, 4/9/02, 3/29/02, 3/27/02, 3/22/02 (twice!), 3/21/02

Did you receive an email advertisement in error? Our goal is to only target individuals who would like to take advantage of our offers.

5/7/02, 5/5/02

This E-mail is being sent to you because you or someone you know has submitted your e-mail to one of our websites. If you feel your e-mail address has been submitted in error, please reply to remove@health-shop.net with Remove in the subject line and we will promptly remove you from our list. Please accept our apologies if we have offended or inconvenienced you in any way.

5/6/02, 4/27/02

Note: this is not a spam email. This email was sent to you because your email was entered in on a website requesting to be a registered subscriber. If you would like to be removed from our list, please hit reply and type your e-mail address in the subject line, otherwise you may receive this mesage again & again.

5/6/02

You are receiving this letter because you have expressed an interest in receiving information about online business opportunities. If this is erroneous then please accept my most sincere apology and email the address below.

5/5/02

UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS: We obtain our list data from a variety of online sources, including opt-in lists. This email is sent by a direct email marketing firm on our behalf, and if you would rather not receive any further information from us, please CLICK HERE and enter your request and you will be unsubscribed. In this way, you will instantly "opt-out" from the list your email address was obtained from, whether this was an "opt-in" or otherwise. Please accept our apologies if this message has reached you in error. Allow up to 5-10 business days for your email address to be removed from all lists in our control. Meanwhile, simply delete any duplicate emails that you may receive and rest assured that your request to be removed will be honored. If you have previously requested to be Removed and are still receiving this message, you may email our Abuse Control Center at CLICK HERE or call us at 1-(888) 636-8029, or write to us at: HWI - attn. Abuse Control Center, 7700 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 800, Irvine, CA 92618.

5/4/02, 4/13/02

You are receiving this email either as agreed to when you posted to one of our many ffa pag