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Getting Spammed By Anti-Spam Services Sucks
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | April 4, 2008
Occasionally someone will subscribe to my free updates using a spam blocker service that autoresponds back to me after their signup, with a prompt to “prove I’m a real person” by entering some phrase on the Challenge Page in order for my email to get through.
When you get that “jump through hoops” message back when you email a friend first, it’s downright annoying.
But when someone you don’t know chooses to subscribe to my newsletter while using a spam-blocking service, they’re spamming ME.
As Paul Myers so eloquently has put it:
“I’ve dumped a ton of subscribers, including people that might surprise you, because they expect me to agree to SpamArrest’s obnoxious ‘terms of service’ for the privilege of sending them something free. Screw that.”
Yep.
And if I was on the fence about wondering whether these “challenge-response” anti-spam services were 1) offering a noble service, or 2) spamming themselves, here’s the kicker:
If you actually jump through the hoops to respond and “prove that you’re a real person”, the quote-unquote “Thank you” page is nothing but a pitch with a link for YOU to pay for the service.
The latest “service” I saw today doesn’t even GIVE a “thank you, your message is now being sent to the recipient” note, it just takes you straight to their Add To Cart page to buy it. Here’s their “thank you” page: spam s1eauth
…And yeah, I spelled it wrong with a “one” instead of an “El, and added a NoFollow tag to the link, so they don’t get any benefit from my linking to them. (NoFollow is normally turned off completely on this blog)
So anyway… No, I’m not a fan.
I just finished a free video series on How To Block & Delete 98% Of Your Spam… WITHOUT resorting to any asinine challenge-response methods.
Check it out. 
-Tim A. Gross
PS - One of the biggest ones, Spam Arrest, runs its affiliate program as an MLM with 3 or 4 levels. So take any good reviews with a grain of salt… Most likely they’re by people trying to suck you into their matrix.
PPS - While I’m on a rant, can we please get rid of “Out Of Office” auto-replies? What next, when you call somebody on the phone and no one answers, you get a callback with an automated message that says, “No one was able to answer your call”?
YEAH, I KNOW THAT… BECAUSE NOBODY ANSWERED!
Heh heh, ok, i’m done.
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