From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!brunix!gh
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Re: Re: How To Stop Junk Mail - Another Idea
Article-I.D.: brunix.1255
Posted: Tue Jan 18 09:55:28 1983
Received: Fri Jan 21 01:22:24 1983
References: stolaf.762,dvlcn.95

Since mailing lists are often copied, identifying and plugging the source
of the leak doesn't help -- there are already lots of copies out there
continuing to replicate, often mutating with the help of computers and sloppy
keying. Some examples:
  (1) I once used the phoney middle initial trick, and became Graeme I. Hirst
to one magazine I subscribed to.  After a while Raeme I. Hirst also started
receiving mail. Recently Graeme I. Hirst received an ad for subscriptions
to the original magazine; apparently they had sold my name to a mailing list
company and then bought it back in a list of people with the right interests
to be potential subscribers.
  (2) On one list I put myself down as "G Hirst, Vice-Pres, Pro-Lix Text
Systems".  After receiving some mail with that address, I found that I had
become "G Vice Pres", ("Dear Mr Pres", the letters would start). A smart
program that kew about titles apparently fixed that, and I became simply "G"
("Dear G").
  (3) I once ordered a CRT by mail, and since UPS can't use our Department's
PO box address, gave the slightly simplified address "Brown Computer Science,
151 Thayer Street, Providence".  Some time later, I received from a stationery
company a felt-tip pen imprinted "Compliments of Brown Computer Science, 151
Thayer Street", with the suggestion that it looked so nice that I should buy a
few gross more.

	Graeme Hirst (A prolix text system in his own right)
	Dept Computer Science, Brown University
	...!{decvax, vax135}!brunix!gh