Newly hired pilot fish has just started work at a big hosting company as a system admin in the support department.
"A couple weeks in, I took a really interesting call," fish says. "One of our customers called in and was telling me that his e-mail list software wasn't working properly for some reason.
"As I listened to this man tell me his problem, I started getting little red flags popping up all over in my head."
This isn't about a conventional mailing list, fish realizes. This guy is sending spam.
While the customer keeps talking, fish starts looking at the customer's trouble-ticket history -- and spots a few tickets from the abuse department. He opens one.
"Imagine my surprise when I saw a very familiar e-mail listed for a 'job offer,'" says fish. "I had started receiving this exact same format of spam when I was looking for the job I have now.
"Matter of fact, after receiving the first one or two of these, and not realizing at first that this was spam, I nearly rejected a real job offer to pursue one offered in one of those spam messages."
Fortunately, fish didn't. And as more of the messages arrived with ever more bizarre job offers, he figured out the point: to get the recipient to sign up for more spam from online colleges.
Once he's off the phone with the spammer, fish tells his team lead what he's discovered, including the tidal wave of spam he's been inundated with by this customer.
Team lead points to a co-worker a few cubicles down. "She's the one who handles abuse tickets," lead says. "Report it."
Says fish, "I thought he was joking at first, but he made it clear it wasn't a joke. We're actively working on getting him shut down, and he's running scared, bringing in attorneys and everything else.
"The irony is, the job his spam nearly made me pass up is the one I'm in now -- and it has become my springboard to getting him shut down!"
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