I am NOT a Spammer!

A spammer has violated baekdal.com to send out spam emails in my name. This is something that I am very angry about, since I hate spam as much as anyone else. And, let me assure you that I am not the sender of these emails.

About a week ago, a spammer decided to use my email address to send out spam emails, and my inbox suddenly flooded with "delivery failure" notices.

At first, I didn't pay much attention to them, it was annoying but it seemed to stop as quickly as it had started. Now it turns out that the problem was much bigger than that. It didn't stop and many people have received spam emails from "baekdal.com".

But...

I AM NOT A SPAMMER! I will never, ever send out spam emails - not even if the world had stopped spinning, nor if hell had frozen over. I HATE SPAM and I hate spammers.

So, if you have received an email from me - about "business loans" - I can assure you that that email has been sent by somebody else using my email.

This is one of the emails I have received when it couldn't be delivered:

1. The first obvious thing to notice is the "from" name "Ruth Shirley" - using my email address. I am sure this is just some random name the spammer has used, since the other emails use a different name.
2. Then there is the link that is included with the email which directs you to some Chinese domain.
3. In the "header" information there is also a number of issues. One is that it was originally sent from "116.127.115.165", which is located in Korea (I have also seen emails sent from India). My email server is located at GoDaddy (USA), and I live in Europe.

You could claim that I hacked into a computer in Korea and sent the emails from there. But, even though I think I am a pretty smart guy, I am not that smart - nor am I that stupid.

I do know a lot about the web - especially when it comes to creating web applications - but I know nothing about hacking. I do not know how a spammer hacks into another computer. And if I was that smart (which I am not), surely I would not be so stupid as to use my own personal email address.

I think my email address was either used by coincidence, or maybe it is a form of revenge. I have been writing several articles about how to prevent spam.

So in short, I am sorry that anyone has received these emails. I can, again, assure you that I am not the sender. I have a very strict Privacy Policy (and opinion about privacy), and I really hate spammers.