Spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam livejournal and spam

[greatbear]

I have been getting a huge amount of spam via my LJ email address lately. What might have been a trickle of a couple per week that started two or three years ago has in the past months blossomed into several a day. It's no surprise though, despite LJ's feeble attempts to mask the LJ-based email address shown in profile pages, it's no big deal for a spammer to harvest usernames and append "@livejournal.com" to them. Poof, instant honeypot of victims.

What a more perfect way to gather LJ user names (and more) than to set up a site offering quizzes and memes?

Also, I have been targeted for a bunch of 'gay' spam pointing to various jock and leather sites. Those I often get in groups of two or three identical emails, the only difference being the gibberish used to foil spam filtering.

Spammers are useless people. If I had my way, I'd have them drawn and quartered.

Anyone else being similarly hit by this crap?

Comments

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

And all this time your domain meant 'bear manga' instead of 'bearman ga'.

Once winter hits and I feel more like dealing with it, I will set up my own hosting as well as email. I will have complete control of it via addresses and be able to track who are the ones spilling the beans to the spammers.

I have a post office box. This makes me feel a bit less antsy about someone rifling through my mail looking for credit card applications and those cash advance checks. Last thing I need is an identity theft crisis. It's happened to several people I know.

[sfmini.livejournal.com]

bearmanga was actually my aol screen name back in the days of... "AOL for DOS". After the first couple of years I just started using whatever email came with my ISP. In 2001 my ISP got bought and sold three times. I got tired of changing my email address with everyone so I came up with my own. Best thing I ever did. Who knew I'd leave GA and then figure out that the same name is used in Japanese anime? While I have no interest in that, I don't enlighten folk that make that assumption.

When I moved to SF four years ago I didn't know where I'd be living permanently, and with me receiving mail for me, my mother and my corporation I figured it'd be easier to get a PO Box. There weren't any, so I got a box at the UPS store. Another "best thing I ever did" thing. Secure mail, I have a key to get into the building, they can receive packages for me and they can even receive and sign for certain legal documents. Most importantly it gives me a street address that I can use for car registration, drivers license and the much coveted "S" zone parking permit. It's a little more expensive, but the parking permit alone is worth it. I work in the "S" zone, opens up a whole new world of convenience!!!