My first RSS (via e-mail) spam
July 26th, 2004
Aargh. My first RSS (via e-mail) spam. How very unpleasant. 
Sad how the e-mail channel is so corrupted that it seeps over into other platforms.
An excerpt:
WINNING NOTIFICATION!! eqh
By THE LOTTERY CO-ORDINATOR <heuegolilotterynotification2004@702mail.co.za>To pamela.343439@bloglines.com
FROM: THE LOTTERY COORDINATOR,INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT
DEAR SIR/MADAM
UPDATE: More clarification is probably needed on this post. Bloglines has a feature where you can generate e-mail addresses, and then use them to receive your e-mail subscriptions in your RSS reader. Makes it easier to unsubscribe, theoretically, from e-mail newsletters. You’d think it would boost subscriptions, too, if it were that easy (and guaranteed) to unsubscribe. Anyway, I set up an address to test this delivery method, and am already getting spam. It’s been a few months, but I guess it’s been discovered.
As I started to look into it further, it turns out this e-mail address shows up on my public Bloglines profile and on my auto-generated blogroll on The River, so it’s no wonder it’s been harvested. Thankfully, I can easily unsubscribe from any e-mail address/RSS feed that’s been polluted like this, and I can also select settings to keep these e-mail addresses private.
