April 15, 2002

Heh. I notice that my hit counter for this page is exactly one year old today. I’ve had an average of just under 11,000 hits here in the past year. That’s an average of 30 hits a day. Pretty impressive, really (though I tend to hit this page quite a few times each day to test it [but no more than ten on average, I imagine]).

So I received this e-mail at my work address (foul language has been censored):

From: John Milteer [custer77@webtv.net]
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 4:38 PM
Subject: Hey f***head

Hey f***head So you got your laughs at my expense and you think it was funny? Yeah, so this Linda Devon was all just a joke made up by you to f*** with me? Now listen you translavainya road rat...the jokes on you! You want to f*** with me? OK, you f***ing fat b***ard mother f***er, I know a little bit about the internet too. Maybe perhaps I might even take it a step above you, and hurt you where it counts most. You aint seen the last of this you a**hole. Just wait!

The e-mail came from a WebTV address, and I don’t know anybody who’s on WebTV. I don’t know a Linda Devon, and the e-mail doesn’t seem to contain a virus. A Google search on the subject line yields no useful information about it being a known hoax or virus.

I can only assume that this is an attempt by a spammer to verify that my e-mail address goes to a real person. If I respond, to find out why this guy’s screaming at me, I’ll show up as a valid e-mail address so I can be spammed.

I have to admit, every time I re-read that message, I’m tempted to respond. I want to either flame the guy or just ask what the problem is.

Does anyone have a better theory?