At different addresses I have different server side spam filters. BrightMail on two addresses, SpamAssasin, and some other proprietary filters. Some work much better than others. And of course it depend on how they are setup, one address with BrightMail gets much better results than the other.

And finally client side I use POPFile to not only filter spam, but classify different types of mail. So far, largely thanks to POPFile, I have not needed to retire any address that I used for general purpose.

I will still expire addresses when they’ve started attracting enough spam.

But having a catch all address means you’re a sitting duck for joe jobs of a sort I got a lot of a while ago.

They’d use lots of variations of e-mail addresses on my domains, then send out spam with those as return addresses. Those joe jobs can really do a number on your inbox!

I then setup another email address or two that are used as general mail boxes. These I use for when I sign myself up for things I can somewhat trust. Like an account with ticketmaster.com and such.

Then if I need to supply an email address at not-so-trustworthy sites. I just make something up and the mail comes into my default address.

example: if I were to sign up for something at commissionjunction.com - I used the email cj at doorhost.net. If they start spamming me - I just block all mail coming to that address and forget about it.

The real problem is all the clueless people who just blindly sign up, then have to pay for messages they never realized they requested.

If it’s just me, I can blacklist sms.ac from ever reaching my inbox. But the real problem is as always the clueless people. And there are way more of them.

For us geeks it’s easy to assume knowledge on behalf of others. Way too easy. I have done that a lot in the past. But I have a site where the visitors are mainly housewives and actors. And I’ve learned the hard way that it takes a lot for the noob to learn anything technical.

So although my readers here are generally only geeks (the housewives have told me they don’t understand what I’m talking about on spamhuntress), the goal is to make the experience better for the noobs. That’s the general goal.

So whenever a geek says, it’s easy to block. Well, that’s nice. But it doesn’t solve the problem.

And when a spammer says he’ll stop spamming ME, I frankly get a bit offended. Because I seldom see a spammer say he’ll stop spamming. I think I’ve seen that three times in total. And one of those outfits - he got others to spam for him instead.

Anyway, rant over.

They haven’t changed it since then, and they get litigious against people who complain on their weblogs: http://joi.ito.com/archives/2005/02/22/letter_from_kevin_b_jones_of_smsac.html

Check Google Groups, and you’ll see loads of invitations sent to discussion lists (that are archived at Google Groups, which I personally think is a stupid development).

I also hate it when someone uses one of those “Send this page to a friend” forms. I don’t sign up for anything at my normal personal address unless I know its a reputable company, and often not even then.

And the third email problem that bugs me is people who forward everything to everybody and don’t use BCC. Eventually those emails can land in the hands of a spammer and be a gold mine of addresses or be seen by a virus that sends itself out based on entries in people’s address books. Everyone seems to have some friend or family that sends out lots of junk like this. My dad recently got started on email and he goes nuts with the forward button. I at least got him to use BCC (most of the time). I am still working on cutting him back. If you send tons of useless junk to everyone, when you actually do send something important its likely to get ignored. I know I stop looking at most of their emails.