20 December - Bexley council. Dabbling with law breaking again?
A radio news item mentioned spam email the other day and for a moment I wondered what they were
talking about because it is so long since I received any (at least two years)
that I’d half forgotten what it is. I do take precautions to prevent it and one of
those is that I use a different email address for each of my correspondents. If for example
I buy something on-line from the ABC Gadget Company I make up an email address of abc@myname.co.uk
and cancel it the moment I’ve finished with them. Only addresses I have specifically marked
for use can be used to reach me.
That’s what I did when I was corresponding with councillor Davey, Andrew Bashford and Will
Tuckley - if you can call a totally one-way communication with the C.E.O. a correspondence - about
the Abbey Road farce. Apart from using it to report bin
problems and gully thefts to the Deputy Director of Customer Relations
no one else in the world knows bexley@myname.co.uk exists; so when I suddenly get deluged with
salacious messages addressed to that address as I have been since last Friday I know that only one
organisation can be responsible for signing me up to some sex site or whatever needs to be done to
get on the spammers’ mailing lists.
When the correspondence with Andrew Bashford and co. ended I stopped using that address and switched
to another but didn’t bother to cancel the older address. Low though my opinion of Bexley council
is, it never occurred to me that they would resort to that sort of abuse. The current address remains
spam free and bexley@myname.co.uk has been belatedly cancelled, ending some small minded
criminal’s little game.
My Internet Service Provider treats me very generously; when they heard what this site was to be used
for they provided the facilities absolutely free of charge and they allow me full administrative
control over their mail server. I cannot only set up or cancel email addresses instantly on-line I can
direct the incoming traffic wherever I wish. I have resisted the temptation to have the
bexley@myname.co.uk address pass email back to Bexley council but if spam recommences to any other
bexley@address known only to me and Bexley council I shall know who is responsible and what to do.