DO you see all the ''Make $$$ Working From Home!'' street-spam stuck on the utility poles, stop signs, and freeway overpass supports in your neighborhood? I do, and the best ones are right next to the ''Posting Signs on City Property Illegal'' notices. Well, even though it is nice to know I can find a job that doesn't require me to say ''Do you want fries with that?'', the signs are a little irritating.

So, when I was cleaning out an old spam-trap this morning, and this dropped out, I thought it was about time for another installment of spam, Skewered.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against The American Dream, and I know that not everyone is cut out for the 9-to-5 grind. Believe me, I would like nothing more than a job that provides less stress, shorter hours, and a nice income. But, so many of these ''work from home'' offers are nothing more than thinly-veiled scams, promising things they can't possibly deliver. Is this one any different? Let's take a look-see, shall we?

And now, what you have all been waiting for: Bring On The Letter!

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Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2002 19:42:10 -0400
From: WorkFromHome.com
Subject: Make Money Working From Home
To:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=''''
Message-Id: < >

--
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Disposition: inline

Dear ED,

MAKE up to $6000 PER MONTH!
Work From Home
Be Your Own Boss
Training is Available
Part-time/Full-time

FOR MORE INFO CLICK
http://optweb2.optmails.com/redir.jsp?oin=684.4640306&t=1

We've already helped thousands of people around the world.
We'd love to show you how this is possible!
What are you waiting for?

FOR MORE INFO CLICK
http://optweb2.optmails.com/redir.jsp?oin=684.4640306&t=1

NEED PROOF?
Hear what people are saying about our WorkFromHome System:

'In my first 30 days I earned over $2300. Today I earn over $15,000 thanks
to following the WorkFromHome System!'
Julia Whitney, former leasing agent

'My first month I made over $1500! Today, at the age of 22,
I am earning over $18,000 per month thanks to the WorkFromHome System'.
Jason Fisher, student

'Last year we earned $110,000 following the WorkFromHome System!'
Ladeo & Vito Dante, director modeling agency/mechanic

'Last month we earned over $12,000 using the WorkFromHome System!'
Dan & Laura Delphia, progammer/professor


FOR MORE INFO CLICK
http://optweb2.optmails.com/redir.jsp?oin=684.4640306&t=1

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This email is not sent unsolicited. This is an Xcitemail Network
mailing! This message is sent to subscribers ONLY.

The e-mail subscription address is:
To unsubscribe please click the link below http://optweb1.optmails.com/cpa/remove.jsp?email= or
Send an email with the word 'remove' in the subject line to

Or you may mail us at:
PO BOX 810052
Boca Raton, Fl
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To begin with, let's look at the headers. The email originates from IP address , which resolves to:
     250.64.118.65.in-addr.arpa. domain name pointer cpaserv.oin2.com.

At this point, it is picked up by (), and sent to my old ISP's mail server. I ran a block-list check on the originating and mail server IP addresses, and sure enough osirusoft and spamhaus have these guys pegged. So I went to SPEWS to get the skinny, and you can see for yourself what they have. In a nutshell: this came from a big-time spam house, courtesy of Frank Bernal and Steve Hardigree. One thing I can say to whoever paid them to do the spam run: you didn't get your moneys worth. I quit using that email address years ago, and it is now kept around as a spam-trap. Not exactly the ''hot leads'' you wre promised, now, is it?

So, what of the content? Well, there is a claim you can makes a lot of $$$$MONEY$$$$$ working at home, and a number of links you can click to get more information, and several testimonials, and the obligatory ''THIS IS NOT Spam!!!'' claptrap, along with an ''unsubscribe'' link and email/smail addresses. Which, BTW, appear to be legit - but I still wouldn't reply to them.

In an attempt to find out more info without clicking those links, I ran a search on Google. The string ''WorkFromHome System'' gave me about 34 hits, most of which were copies of ''the letter'' in HTML format, posted to various 'targeted' mailing lists - for example, the one at linux-ipv6.org, where I am sure it fit in well with the other topics, such as ''how to start routeradvertisements'' and ''need help with kernel nat-pt''. Oh, yeah, ''routeradvertisements'' - that's the tie-in! I'm so sure they actually meant ''spew spam for work-at-home scams all over our mailing list'' when they posted that. In this copy, ''Dan / Laura Delphia'' claim to have made ''over £12,000''. I guess this was when the exchange rate for the US$ and British £ sterling was at 1.000.

Following the links in the spam-o-gram above took me to a place called Prepaid Living, com - I guess that is in the new ''comma com'' domain made popular in the Boy George song. Anyway, this page is shilling something called EXACT METHOD MARKETING".

So, now to the $65,536 question: Duck, or Not Duck? It looks pretty quacky to me, but then so do a lot of these ''Become a Gazillionaire while sitting by the pool drinking Mai-Tais'' infomercials one sees on late-night cable. Then, I found that which I was looking for. At the bottom of the web page, the following:

''As a Prepaid Living Independent Marketing Affiliate (IMA), you can begin building residual income by introducing Prepaid Living to others. By using Exact Method Marketing you automate the process so that no personal contact is necessary.''

Making lots of $$$$MONEY$$$$$ with no personal contact, via 'residual income'? Sounds like a dream job to some. Sounds like an invitation for the FTC to send out another Cease & Desist letter, to me. Something about ''pyramid scheme'' seems to ring a bell here...