Unsubscribe

Every year or so, they catch up to me again: unscrupulous Internet so-and-sos, who send out cannonloads of spam.

Spam is as old as the Internet, but with a little determination you can usually block it. Or at least some of it. At least for a while.

Which is what I do. Sometimes I even notice a slight decrease in volume, but it never lasts.

At first, when all those unwanted solicitations begin to accumulate again, I just delete it. But before too long, I get mad.

Enough is enough, I think. And I start clicking on the "unsubscribe" links, typically buried at the very bottom of the spam, and in the tiniest of print – so tiny it isn't easy to read, but is easy to overlook.

But they're usually there. So I start clicking on them, and filling out the associated forms.

It rankles me to have to fill out an "unsubscribe" form, even though most of them are short and sweet. To unsubscribe implies that I subscribed in the first place!

These unsubscribe links obviously get a lot of use. I clicked on one once, and got an error message that said, "Could not connect. Too many connections."

Here's a web site with some useful information about spam.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/spam/

I don't think it's possible to eliminate spam entirely. The Internet is filled with unscrupulous, bottom-feeding bastards out to sell you something you don't need; to dupe anyone and everyone into buying some spurious product or service. And it isn't just the former finance minister of a tiny African country you might not even be able to locate on a map.

The nerve of these people!