I recognize that it is a serious violation of netiquette to post "spams" to
this list, but the following message is directly targeted at listowners.  I
received it earlier this morning with a copy of my latest TOURBUS post
attached (TOURBUS is a 40,000 person OPEN,CONFIRM distribution list
operating on LISTSERV.AOL.COM).

I particularly enjoyed the line in the spam that says:

     All you would need to do is to send us your list electronically, and we do
     all the work and send it back to you cleaned from the problematic
     addresses.

As a thank-you for this spam, I offered the author of this spam some
friendly self-improvement advice ("In the future, please purchase your
clues at a higher quality clue store.")

-----

From: Ram Avrahami <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Email List Cleaning Service


Dear Sirs,

It is our understanding that you are involved with mass email solicitations.
Below is a sample message that apparently was sent from you or your
computers. Such messages upset many recipients, which is not helpful to your
business. In fact, you or your ISP might have been flamed before or you
probably heard about initiatives to regulate or prosecute electronic
solicitations. Now, you can take a simple precautionary step to prevent much
problems for yourself in the future.

We offer a simple cleaning service that removes from your emailing lists the
addresses of people who have explicitly asked not to receive further email
solicitations. We have a large and growing list of such people. These are
not people that you want to mail to, and an upfront cleaning can save you
much trouble with very little effort.

All you would need to do is to send us your list electronically, and we do
all the work and send it back to you cleaned from the problematic addresses.
It is just that simple. In fact, a company that uses our service is non
other than Cyber Promotions, Inc, which is one of the most well known
companies for sending out email solicitations.

To reduce your risk to the minimum, we commit that we will not use your
emailing list for any other purpose but the cleaning, nor will we disclose
it in any shape or form. Furthermore, at this time the service is free, so
you have absolutely nothing to lose from trying it. Please contact me at
[log in to unmask] for more details. We hope to be able to serve you soon.

Sincerely,

Ram Avrahami
[log in to unmask]

            .~~~.
  (\__/)  .'     )          Patrick Douglas Crispen
  /o o  \/     .~          The University of Alabama
 {o_,    \    {              [log in to unmask]
   / ,  , )    \         http://ua1ix.ua.edu/~crispen/
   `~  '-' \    }
  _(    (   )_.'              Warning: squirrels.
 '---..{____}