I have always said that I use my real email address on Fodors but don't receive spam. The patash2 I use is a secondary screen name that I always log onto. My primary email address which I never use and never log onto is filled with spam always, but I seldom get any on my patash2 one. Suddenly in the last few days I've gotten three spam emails from a place called [email protected]. The funniest part is at the bottom of their email it says that this is not a list. This is a direct email. Then even lower it says, "Spam is bad." Anyone else getting these? It just seemed that the source may be getting my address from here, so wondered if other Fodorites are seeing this?

Poor Patrick, what a nuisance! Like you, I always post a real e-mail address, on principle. It's one I use specifically for posting, not the one I use for people who know me. So it gets lots of spam, but I haven't noticed anything from the source you specified. I also didn't notice any increase in the spam after I started posting on Fodors.

I have a private email for friends, etc. The one I use on Fodors is also real but I have learned to leave 1 letter out of Yahoo or to type in yahoo.nospam.com.<BR><BR>I had gotten hugh amounts of spam on this account before resorting to the "dropped letter".<BR><BR>Lately I have been getting lots of spam on my private account ,too even though it has a spam eliminator featur that catches most of it.

I use a real one, too, and haven't had any problem. Maybe AOL takes care of it?

Hi,<BR>The above is my real email address.I think I received something from foraticket.com a few days ago but deleted it to free up sapce on my mail account. Nothing since then.

Yes, got something from them too but I just deleted it. Hopefully, that's all there is to it.

I suggest you send a return email, with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. That action should remove you from the mailing list and resolve the problem.

Thanks, as of this morning I have switched to DSL and earthlink, but right now still have my AOL. Not sure if I should start using my new regular email address or create a special screen name so that most span doens't go there. But isn't it funny that this company puts "Spam is Bad" on the bottom of their Spam messages?

patrick<BR>I got email from that company yesterday. However, I never use my real email address on Fodors. I have no idea where they got it from. However I put them on my "blocked senders" list. Have you that facility, it's very handy?

Leslie-<BR>Unless you work for a spamming firm, I'll assume no one has shared with you why it is a BAD idea to go send an "unsubscribe" reply. Here goes..<BR>Much spam is sent out in a fashion similar to the random dialers that telemarketers use. The sender has no idea whether the addresses are valid or not. If you reply - even with an "unsubscribe" message - you have just verified for the spammer that yours is a valid email address. This will get it added to "qualified" spam lists that sell for a higher price. <BR>Best bet is to just delete spam; to avoid exposure to potentailly nasty viruses, don't even open it.

I find is hard to believe that anyone in this day and age (what is it - the year 2001?) gets worked up enough over one (yes, 1) piece of unsolicited email to post a message about it. Gawd! Our mailbox gets at least 5/day. It does not matter whether you supply a valid address on Fodors at all -- firms sell lists of valid addresses every day. They are "gleaned" from almost any site you visit (was it an online theater ticket agency?). Stroker is right about not responding; just delete it and carry on with cyberlife! PS - Congrats on dumping AOL (the poorest excuse for an ISP every imagined).

Patrick, I have an AOL account also and get bazillions spam email on it, they have a real problem and do not do much to filter it, they allow even blatant pornographic spam through which has. I don't recall that particular one, but I just zip down the list deleting email very ruthlessly. I get spam on my nonprimary AOL screenname even though I have never posted it anywhere, although I know partly it is because I have an AOL profile with that name and I have learned that somehow (and I don't know how) companies can retrieve all the screennames that have AOL profiles very easily and blanket everyone with spam mail. The best way to avoid spam email on AOL is not to have a profile. AOL is very primitive in its efforts to eliminate spam email IMO, they do less than any other provider I use. For example, I have an account on Yahoo that I do use fairly frequently and they have a spam filter that detects bulk mailings which works pretty well. The few bulk mailings I wanted (newsletters I signed up for) can be entered as allowable. I would not send an unsubscribe back to a spam email as they aren't operating under ethics to begin with or you wouldn't get it unsolicited. I have also had a friend tell me that thing about not replying because that verifies your address, but that doesn't make sense to me as if it is not returned as unsendable, they already know it is a valid email address, right? It's just that replying to spam companies doesn't do any good anyway, they don't care if you want it or not.

Rod, I didn't know I was all worked up about it. But I guess you got worked up enough about my brief post to make a longer post about my being worked up. I was simply curious if that piece of email posted to my screen name that never gets other spam but is the one I use at Fodors was going to other Fodorites. I'll try to control myself in the future. Thanks for the comments folks.<BR>By the way, I have a hotmail account that has a filter also; I have already filled up the list of block senders available and I still get up to 25 or 30 ads a day there. That has gotten totally out of hand.

Patrick, I too use my real e-mail address here and have never been able to figure out why people complain about spam because I have never gotten any...until today. Foraticket.com (same note at bottom)<BR>I hope this is not a sign of things to come.