The spam has got completely out of hand around here. As a result, I’ve been testing a new spam-trap. It uses Perl and Mail::Audit to ‘read’ incoming messages, so to speak, and to check for certain dead giveaways that the message might be spam. Legitimate e-mail never, for instance, confuses the e-mail address with the name (e.g. Dear tino@tinotopia.com, …)

It might be better to just check headers (i.e. a mail sent from one domain, relayed through another, and with a return address in a third, is probably spam), but the spammers can, if they’re smart, avoid leaving that kind of evidence in their messages. Instead, I check the content: mail that seems to be about Viagra, or penis enlargement, or e-commerce, or mortgage refinancing, or any of a bunch of other favorite spam topics, gets rejected.

In the event that you would like to correspond with me on a non-commercial basis on any of these topics, putting the word “NOTSPAM” somewhere in the subject header will result in the mail being routed through the system to me, regardless of content.

If you are thinking of abusing this facility for the purpose of sending me advertisements, I warn you that falsifying routing information in unsolicited commercial e-mail is a illegal in Virginia. Violators may be subject to criminal prosecution, as well as liable for civil damages. See http://www.spamlaws.com/state/va.html for more information.