Spam Evaluation Experiment #1
Aim: To check the nature and amount of spam received when email addresses are left on the public world wide web.
Ingredients: Email addresses set up with popular ISPs (Google and Hotmail), and access to a public web page.
Method:
Step 1 : Create two email addresses, one each on Google and Hotmail using the techniques listed at the following link. (Experimenters might also choose to create one email address rather than two.)
http://webcoherence.org/2009/03/17/email-experiments-starting-simply/
Step 2 : Setup all emails from these email addresses so they will be forwarded to us, so that we can periodically analyze the emails received every week, and keep you updated with our results on the blog.
Google email address should be forwarded to: coherence.experiment1@googlemail.com
Hotmail email address should be forwarded to: coherence.experiment1@hotmail.co.uk
The steps to forward emails for Google and Hotmail can be found at the following link:
http://webcoherence.org/2009/03/23/email-experiments-setting-up-forwarding/
Step 3 : Post these newly created email addresses as comments to this post. This has the effect of making these email addresses available on the public World Wide Web.
Once you post the email addresses as comments to this post, we shall start monitoring our mailboxes for the spam emails that will be forwarded from these newly created email accounts and update the results on our blog.
Step 4 : Do not use these email addresses elsewhere, or for other experiments.
Observation:
We shall be posting our observations as we analyze spam emails from your accounts.
Expected Results:
Web Crawlers will pick up live email addresses, and use them to spam mailboxes.
Conclusion:
The conclusion will be posted after sufficient observations have been made over a period of time.
Note:
Experimenters and other audiences are encouraged to discuss this experiment using the comment box below.
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