"The Experiment" - The Only Downfall

Already received my first SPAM, I was interested to see which disposable address it was sent to, but the problem is (and I didn't consider this) is that if the sender uses BCC instead of CC or TO then I don't think that I can see the email address they used for me.

Still - I'm pretty sure I know how they got it.  First of all, I've created a brand new Hotmail account and I've made sure that I don't post the email address anywhere, so I know it's not that email.  That having been said, I've only created two disposable email addresses and used them as a test.  The first was signing up with Apple Support, so I doubt that it came via that route.  The second test was the disposable email address that I posted here, knowing that bots can visit sites and harvest email addresses.  By the process of elimination, this must have been the source.

On a somewhat interesting side-note, today, I've found that all of a sudden, I have 23 hits, all from the same O/S, country and browser, which leads me to believe that it's somewhat likely the same source.  Perhaps this bot is checking other pages on the site for other email addressed, but I don't think so.  Just from the posts that were viewed and the fact that they are older, I suspect that this is an individual how has stumbled upon TecHumanity.  I can't be sure, but that's what I think.

Experimental PS - Ducks Away!

I was just folding laundry and I had a Eureka moment (well - I'm not suggesting that it was so much of a Eureka moment that I was running around in my birthday suit - much too chilly for that!).

I was thinking to myself why all of a sudden I had this gust of inspiration and then it came to me - clear as day. 

As per my Saturday morning routine, I was having my coffee and reading the Saturday paper.  There was an article that I read and I can't believe that it is a coincidence.  I didn't consciously base my experiment on this article, but it just had to be the subconscious root of it.

The article was about a book that was written on an experiment that was conducted.  The name of the book is "Moby Duck".  The experiment is that scientists went out into the middle of the ocean with thousands of specially coded little yellow rubber bath ducks.  They had a "duck overboard" moment and dumped them all into the Atlantic.  The premise of this experiment was to use the coding on the ducks to track their movements through the ocean in order to study the currents.

I thought to myself, wow - this is EXACTLY what I am doing - it's just an electronic version, but the premise is exactly the same.  I'm tracking the ebbs and flows of the Internet.

Ducks away! Here's duck #1 to test for harvesting of email addresses on websites:
full_throttle_t01@hotmail.com

An interesting side note that I've noticed.  I've often wondered about some of these foreign hits that I get.  What I have noticed is that very often, I'll get a hit from UAE or some other location immediately upon posting.  Obviously this means that this site is being automatically monitored somehow.  Who knows why - it's a piddly little technology blog, but I'm going to check to see how quickly I get a hit on this blog entry and where it comes from.

B&B Marketing

Good old Internet marketing - aka - SPAM. Was somewhat amused yesterday when I received two disaparate emails. The first was for Bras and the second...the second...was for..forklifts! Talk about two totally different products.

In both cases (but especially the latter), I like to refer to this as B&B marketing. Bullhorn and buckshot. The bullhorn is self-evident. The buckshot - well - you shoot off enough pellets and sooner or later one will hit a target.

The email for bras - okay - so I see their plan that with a mass market, they have a 50/50 chance at reaching their target audience. But forklifts? Seriously - I am very curious as to what the click-through on that email was. What's next? Spam for swimming pools? Nuclear reactors? A rocket-launcher perhaps?

B&B Marketing - it just has to be the lazy man's way of doing this.