Spammers Suck!

by Billy "DawgBert" McClurg
gobrowns@dawgbert.com

Reach Out and Touch Someone... This line is from an AT&T ad campaign. I'm thinking of adopting this campaign in dealing with spammers!

Seriously, don't you wish you could just once reach through the Internet and the telephone lines to punch-out annoying spammers and telemarketers ? Well I do!

Most recently I've been receiving spam faxes from Canada… 514-958-0001. It took several weeks to actually get a number to appear on the caller-ID. I forced the issue of making a number appear by constantly disconnecting the call until a number eventually appeared when they called again and again!

This Canadian telemarketing company or individual is fax spamming for Domain Registry Support, 511 Avenue of the Americas, #60, New York, NY 11001-8436.

Originally they tried to convince me that I needed to renew my domain names through them or I was in danger of losing them. Fortunately, this is a part of my business, I'm very knowledgeable in this area, and I know what to look for. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there, some of them my clients, who are getting spammed by this and other companies. They don't know what to look for and these faxes appear to be official and accurate.

These spammers remind me of the guy standing out on the street corner, selling jewelry, etc., out of the trunk of his car. His merchandise looks like the merchandise you can find in the stores down the street, but it so much cheaper! You're thinking why would this person cheat me, he's just trying to make a living. He just can't get ahead because the man keeps puttin' him down, he can't afford to set-up a legitimate looking business; plus, licenses and permits are just too expensive. You take the deal and within a couple of days you notice that the beautiful necklace you purchased is turning your neck a blackish-green and causing you to itch.

In my research for help in combating unwanted spam from email and faxes, as well as telemarketing calls, I found FCC.gov most helpful.

On the other side of this spam problem, I occasionally get a bounced or rejected email sent by someone else, with my email address in the From line. Do I have reason to be concerned? My Internet service provider techs say it is just spam. But I find it very disconcerting, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it…?!

I wish more people understood how easy it is to spoof a "From address." I recently spoke with a friend-client who was convinced that I was sending him spam and viruses. I assured him that it's a spam situation and educated him on certain things to look for. For one, I DO NOT spam my friends and clients! If you receive emails from me, it's because you are subscribed to one of our email services; either rivercitiesezine.com or dawgbyteproductions.com. RiverCities Ezine and DawgByte Productions Newsletter emails are clearly identifiable and should never receive attachments.

If anyone who is subscribed to our newsletter services no longer wishes to receive an email from us, they need only select the opt-out option contained in every email from us.

I continue to count myself fortunate that I am knowledgeable in these areas and I truly fear for those who are not. Because the wrong click could have devastating results.

If you have questions regarding a domain purchase, contact the company you purchased it from, or visit DawgByteDomains.com for renewal and transfer information. You can set-up an account for free; we offer the same features as GoDaddy.com, Register.com and NetworkSolutions.com, and possibly for less then our competition.

DawgByteDomains.com also provides 24/7 tech support online or by calling the telephone numbers listed on the site.

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Billy "DawgBert" McClurg is the CEO-Webmaster of DawgByte Productions and the creator of RiverCitiesEzine.com, RiverCitiesDirectory.com, RiverCities Homes, RiverCities Classified, DawgByte Radio and many, many others.

Editors Note: Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages, which are almost universally undesired. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, mobile phone messaging spam and junk fax transmissions.

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