Warning about "melony cassandra"

[Dan Shane]

HARRY KINDLY INFORMED US:

> I just sent a message to DCML, with the subject "Kalevala".
>
> I got an auto-reply from fiera121 at yahoo.com stating something about a
> website that was hacked.

    <<<    SNIP    >>>

> This last subject line *does* suggest that the sender is looking for sex
> partners.
>
> I don't know exactly what's going on, but if you get similar messages,
don't
> bother to answer them...
>
> --Harry.

AND I REPLY:

Yes, that's an old trick ("old" meaning a couple of years in "Internet
time") intended to rouse curiosity in the spam victim.  Your advice is
absolutely correct and most welcome.  Most of the time we receive
unsolicited mail, the best course is to simply and quickly delete it.  Any
response usually keeps the cycle going, and winds up digging the hole
deeper.

This is the sort of thing one gets used to when dealing with newsgroups, but
on mailing lists it is quite rare.  Hopefully, this instance will die a
quick death if just ignore it as you advised.

--
Dan Shane
(danshane at bellsouth.net)