Computer: Email: Spam: Avoidance
I am Spam. Spam I am.   (+2, -1)  [vote for, against]
It's like you, without the you.

Our company will provide you with a persona. This will include one e-mail address, one phone number with voice mail box extension, and a PO box.

Any time you are asked for personal information, give out the persona info and we'll monitor your junk mail boxes for you. Our highly trained staff will collect all of the paper mail and return it for recycling, empty "your" junk e-mail box weekly and delete the messages from "your" junk voice mail box daily.

Never be bothered by telemarketeers or credit card companies again. Call "Spam I Am" for details and pricing.

All information is kept completely confidential.
-- ato_de, Sep 10 2003

Spam Gourmet http://www.spamgourmet.com/
[sophocles]'s link. Looks like it has been baked after all. [XSarenkaX, Oct 17 2004]

Great title...
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 10 2003


How do you distinguish between "good" e-mail and the kind of spam that actually has your given name in the subject field? You know when you get one that says "Hey Snarfyguy, I found your hat" and then it's a spam anyway...
-- snarfyguy, Sep 10 2003


The point of this is that you can register at news sites or retail sites without the fear of constantly being bombarded by spam from them and everyone to whom they sell your information. This will not eliminate spam to your real address, but is a service that provides the illusion of a real address to all of the advertisers.

[snarfguy] don't use the pesona for anything that is truely important, or you could pay more to have the stuff screened and sorted and the interesting stuff forwarded to you in confidence.

[UB] I see the point, but you have to start somewhere.

* trust us, at "Spam I Am" we'll protect your information. *
-- ato_de, Sep 11 2003


This is a great business idea. The money you'd make from Bill Gates tracking all the emails with his special proprietary software would be a fortune by itself.
-- dijontoothpaste, Sep 11 2003


I've already got an AOL account for just this very purpose
-- Sir Jekyll Shave, Sep 11 2003


would you could you in the rain?, would you could you on a train? would you could you with a goat?, would you could you on a boat? In the dark, say in the dark? I wonder what Suess was really talking about?
-- Zimmy, Sep 12 2003


Back to the actual idea, I have two things to share.

1) If you need to register for an online account somewhere from whence you know you will not need to receive any important email, try using a fake email address. Use emails such as yaya@scoobydoo.com, yousuck@dontspamme.com, billgates@bitesit.com, etc. It's fun, but the shortcoming is for those sites you may actually want notices from.

2) This one solves the problem above. In addition to his main home email, my husband has registered himself for an email address that is specifically used for computer registrations. He never uses the main email address for online accounts, only for trusted friends, family, and his own personal use. He is able to distinguish the substance in his inbox from the spam simply by using the differing email addresses used. This way, he can list them with the To: address included, sort them by that address, or even filter them into a folder automatically (like trash, or other folder) if he wants. If he notices an email that looks legitimate among the spam, he can always read it.

I, personally would rather do #2 above than trust some company to trash absolutely everything addressed to a certain email address. They may miss something important or make other assumptions for me.
-- XSarenkaX, Sep 12 2003


This is baked. Baked this is. : http://www.spamgourmet.com/
-- sophocles, Sep 12 2003


spamgourmet.com meets part of one of the aspects of the "Spam I Am" service. It does not, however, take care of phone or postal spam. We at "Spam I Am" take pride in offering junk mail accounts _and_ monitoring of those accounts for all of your spamable media. Have a nice day.
-- ato_de, Sep 15 2003



random, halfbakery