Here’s my column from the April issue of Scanorama. Enjoy!

A spammer who loves me

Funny things started to happen with my email a few months ago. I began to receive email from myself. All of a sudden a new email would drop in my Inbox, from me, from risto at ristopakarinen.com.

The first time that happened, I was delighted, thinking that it was a email notification about a comment somebody had left here on my blog. So I quickly – too quickly, it would turn out – clicked it open, only to find an advertisement for jewelry open up. Or, maybe it was Viagra. Or the Brooklyn Bridge. I can’t remember anymore because I was so stunned by the fact that I would send something like that to me.

Of course, after checking my Sent items, I realized that it was another case of spam. Spam, spam, spam, spam!

Now, getting spam is annoying. I love emptying my Junk mail, because I imagine all those spammers getting very, very disappointed for not getting through.

Getting spam is one thing, getting it from what seems to be yourself hurts even more. Not only is somebody sending me trash, they’re doing it, posing as me. What if people all over the world are now getting email from me, selling jewelry? Or maybe Viagra. I quickly – but not quicky enough – contacted my service provider and cried for help.

They worked their magic, adding filters, adjusting domain keys, and installing SPF records, and I haven’t heard from me since.

Except once.

About two weeks later, I was sitting at the kitchen table, surfing, checking my email, the usual Saturday night stuff, when I heard the frog sound my Mac does when I get mail.

The new message was from Risto Pakarinen.

That’s me.

The subject title was “Ssssassssssaaaaqa(!!$$!$$!!!?@@000″@@4$?” which seemed – suspicious. The message itself was empty, except for one thing. Underneath the blank message, there was a signature line that looked familiar. I have the same one … on my iPod Touch.

I looked up, and on the couch, about five meters in front of me, I saw a small head of a child move. It was my daughter, aged 2 (at the time), looking at photos and playing around with the gadget.

And spamming innocent people.