Word or warning, I do ramble. I'm also a noob here on Complaints Board. So.. In I Come With a Bang.

I've been dealing with spammers for years. I know I playing "Don Quixote" and tilting at windmills now, but I still do it for fun. (spammers forced me to learn "net things" like WHOIS, DNS, traceroute, IP tracking and routing, SWIPed IPs, and lots more).
I'm a member of CAUCE (use your G00gleFu <g>)and other organizations. I've even helped draft laws and regulations in WA..., and I've had many retaliations from spammers, :ie mailbombs forged subscribes pingfloods...
Some of the virttual "trophy heads on the wall" (always shared) are Spamford Wallace, Mike Kieger, "AlRal" Ralsky, and about 400 more (not counting "419" email addresses by the thousands)
So much for my creds and brags...
Most spam is scams. (and spam itself is 95+% of all email now)

Most (at least from what I see on my 10+ email accounts and the 5+ accounts I manage for family and friends) are "419s"/Nigerian scams/Dying Widow Will/"You Have Won"/"Need Agent In Your Country" and all those "advanced fee frauds" mainly).

Next in line are the Canadian Pharmacy/PenisPillz/Cheap Software type (Bing/Goog/etc search "PARTNERKA"", this and the "Russian spam Gangs" are the main source of these. Fake pills, no merchandise, ID theft, bank fraud, phishing .. real bad crap!

Then comes the "Make Money At Home"/"Instant Money Off Internet Marketing"/"Affiliate" spam. There are a few of these that are real businesses but even those have to bend laws or good business practices. Most of those are pyramid scams. Two good tip-offs": the word "Affiliate" and the "3 foot Website" (scroll down 'forever' or until your scrolling finger gets numb). The "Affiliate" is either a victim or a willing participant in the scam/top levels of the pyramid.
Many of them even give you details on *how to spam*

Next in line is spam for some business that fell for a spammet's tricks: either they paid for having it done and spammy provided "a list of prole who have "opted-in" to receive "targeted" (false!) emails, or sold them athe same list and some "ratware" to do the spamming themselves. it's a n00bie problem. They had no idea what they got themselves into.. see "Aurora Nissan" (http://preview.tinyurl.com/Aurora-Nissan-spam) PS.. I was packing a sign there.

Last comes what's called "Mainsleaze" spam, a reasonably-known company like Kraft's "Gevailia" division (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gevalia) that wantonly and knowing spams.

spam isn't "email I don't want". That's part of it, but the best short description is "Consent". If you gave your consent, it ain't spam. However, if they sold/gave your email address away to some other entity who then sends you email.

Also, the spam concept isn't just email.
"Street Spam" (those who shove signstakes in all over the place, "handbills" and signs on utility poles, buildings, et al.
"Comment/Blog/Forum spam" ( ads posted in places like this one)
"Spim" (done via texting, instant messaging, chat, or digital pager bombing: this is actually what it's called )
(and more)

What this long (and rambling) post is for:

1) passing on spam tips
2) exposing scammers' URLs (web addresses)
3) documenting the "Mainsleaze" companies so that you can (if desired) boycott them (and preferably why)
4) scams in general that you find on the Internet.
5) how to tune up your 'bullshit detector" for scams.

It would be nice if CB's honchos would would create some new topic(s) on this line.

I'll even throw you a couple of my valid (and valid) email addresses.
usenetharvested (at) aol (dot) com.ode Remove and replace as needed to make it valid.(this is called "mungeing")
[email protected] (plain and real, I can deal with spam resulting from email harvesting )

H A N D.
I'll S T F U now...