What can a spammer do in retaliation?

[Justin42]

There is a certain website that is sending me a few unsolicited emails a week trying to get me into an advertising deal with them. I'm not even entirely sure where they got my address from, but that's irrelevant. The emails are sent to me from different names, but they all make the "I contacted you last week and haven't heard back so I am writing you again" claim.

I reported them to spamcop and got a very nasty email from someone else in their company about how I am being irresponsible and telling me that a "single email of inquiry" is not the same as spam (keep in mind, there is no unsubscribe address, and I have gotten multiple "inquiries"), and how detrimental this is to their business.

So, how safe is it to keep reporting them? What could they do? Would spamcop give them information regarding my identity? I stand by my opinion that this is spam, especially given the repetitive nature of it and the fact they try to cover it up with the "I wrote you last week" type of disclaimer (even though it was a different name)

I have not responded to their emails because I don't want to give them ANY personal address of mine (even a spamcop address) as I don't know what they're do with it.

I think at this point I'll see if I get a further email and if I don't in a few days (responding to my latest report) I'll just block the domain from emailing me and leave it at that.

Thanks for any opinions.

[Merlyn]

You will get many different answers here.

IMHO do not reply and keep reporting them. They do have their own ways to find out who you are.

Do you mind sharing who this is? There are plenty here that would like to know.

[loafman]

I would continue to report them. I get messages just like that to spamtraps, postmaster, and webmaster almost every day. So far, they've been lucky in that they have not made any replies. I wish they would. Sneakemail is your friend in this case.

...Ken

[moonbroth]

So, how safe is it to keep reporting them? What could they do? Would spamcop give them information regarding my identity?

18232[/snapback]

Not intentionally (SpamCop are very ethical, in my experience), but although the SpamCop software will try to anonymize your complaints (e.g. removing your email address and anything that looks like it from the complaint), this isn't foolproof. (It is relatively easy for a spammer to include some unique token -- other than your email address -- in the message you will be reporting, and to link this back to your email address on receipt of a 'munged' complaint from whoever gives them connectivity).

Basically, a spammer has your email address already -- the best you can do now is damage control. I'm sorry I can't promise you a magic bullet, but there isn't one.

I'd report them, FWIW.

Cheers, Nick

[Justin42]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not so much concerned about them getting my email address, I'm more worried about lawsuits (or threatened lawsuits), etc-- would Spamcop give any info that's not already in the email is more what I meant (my name, etc)? Obviously, if it's already in the email, that's one thing-- I'm more concerned about what else they could do.

[Merlyn]

spam is about consent not content. I do not see how they could do anything. There is no law about blocking or reporting spam.

I have had many cartooney threats but not have followed through.

Lexical Contradiction: Spammers will redefine any term in order to disguise their abuse of Internet resources.

Sharp's Corollary: Spammers attempt to re-define "spamming" as that which they do not do.

Spammer's Standard of Discourse: Threats and intimidation trump facts and logic.