Spammers are thwarting filters by putting their target email addresses in the sender line, and pushing the emails to invalid addresses, according to The Register.

I’ve received about a half dozen bounced messages that may be related, and recollect they were coming from Postfix servers. If you see one, you will notice all the generic “this is a message from the Postfix server” bit, and the “returned” spam message will be at the very bottom.

I’ll post a sample here next time one comes my way.

PS: Yes, that title needs work.

According to a post by the Dallas Mavs/HDNet owner, Common Cause has been spamming him plenty since he suggested that the idea of a two-tier internet might have some value.

This scenario doesn’t pass the smell test.

Let me first point out that I do not agree with the two-tier concept, but I do not agree with the DearAOL campaign either. Common Cause is part of the DearAOL group. And Cuban and Common Cause don’t agree with each other.

Timely, isn’t it? A very prominent guy gets spam from an organization that is part of a very prominent fight against a very prominent ISP. This is either a big joe job, or a very prominent ISP is now going to be saying “I told you so.”

***UPDATE***

Brian McWilliams is following up with this, noting that Kintera is managing Common Cause’s lists. Interested to hear how this all plays out.

***UPDATE 2***

I was giving Common Cause the benefit of the doubt here, hoping that the spam Mark Cuban was receiving was from some joe-jobber “acting on behalf” of Common Cause (likely to incite some community anger). As it is turning out, Common Cause, through this email form, may actually be enabling users to spam telecomm/media executives (including Cuban), while quietly building their own email list and opting folks into their newsletter.

Holding vigil against one ISP’s solution to a seemingly never-ending spam problem is one thing. But, utilizing spamming in your “Cause” is entirely another.

***UPDATE 3***

Mark Cuban confirmed via email it’s not a joe job.

Rick Klau got caught in the middle of someone’s dirty email tricks. The joker covertly set up and then spammed an entire email list, and now Mr. Klau is getting replies from everyone under the sun, including a bunch of angry bankers and accountants. Its unknown as of yet (at least here) what the spam was about, or how many people were actually on the list. As Techdirt pointed out, joe jobs are often done to piss someone off, or get back at someone whom first did the pissing.

I am sure we haven’t heard the end of this.