Imagine this scenario: A company sends out tens of thousands of junk e-mails around the country, but instead of putting its own return address on the pitch, it puts yours.
Not only has the nefarious move sullied your good name, but now you have to deal with thousands of angry replies instructing just where you can stick the advertisement, also known as "spam."
The practice, called forged spamming, is becoming a common tactic among purveyors of the maligned marketing ploy. By routing the returns to another e-mail address, spammers can get their message out while avoiding the often irate backlash that can clog computer systems and shut down operations.
"This is real unfunny if you happen to be the victim," said Jack Rickard, editor of Boardwatch Magazine, relaying accounts of companies getting hit with more than 100,000 unwanted messages because of the dodge.
Matthew Seidl, a computer science student at the University of Colorado, wasn't laughing when he woke up one morning in January to find 2,000 messages gumming up his system.
The doctoral candidate quickly realized what had happed when he began opening the mail. While much of it had bounced -- returned unopened because of a wrong address -- the rest were requests for immediate removal from the mailing list written with varying degrees of contempt.
The e-mail originated from Minneapolis-based Greentree Mortgage, but it listed nobody@localhost.com as the return address. Seidl, who owns the domain name localhost.com, doesn't have a "nobody" designation, but the e-mail came to him anyway because of the domain name.
Seidl's system, he laments, was unusably slow for days and the replies continued to trickle in for weeks before reaching a total of more than 7,000 unwanted messages.
"Tens of thousands of people now have a negative opinion of me and the domain I use for consulting," he said.
Spamming incites unusually strong reactions, turning denizens of the Net into a modern equivalent of pitchfork-wielding villagers. The vigilante brand of justice can produce anti-spamming, eye-for-an-eye tactics to return the favor, including one incident of an angry recipient retaliating against a listed phone number by programming a phone to auto redial the spammer for 24 hours.
One Web site frequented by Internet service providers regularly posts messages from victims of forged spamming begging for mercy to stop the flaming from Internet purists.
There are even unconfirmed reports that spammers use forgery as a way to sabotage the competition or take a swing at companies that specialize in solicited e-mail.
"It's a form of vandalism that could affect a brand or the goodwill of customers," said Dan Murray, a marketer with Denver-based personalized e-mail service Mercury Mail.
One message sent to Seidl warned, "Now, be prepared to be harassed yourself." Another included a bill for $50 for the advertising space.
Though the promised backlash never materialized, he's still trying to get satisfaction from Greentree for the damage it caused his business, studies and professional reputation. A Greentree spokesman could not explain the incident, but Seidl's lawyer doubts it was an accident.
"I think it is completely impossible for anybody to do this accidentally," said Shirley Sostre, an attorney who specializes in Internet issues. "If Greentree had not done what they did, their computer system would have crashed for three days instead."
Sostre hasn't decided to file a lawsuit yet, but she doesn't rule it out as a means of sending a warning about spamming.
"We need to get the wheels rolling to get this kind of abuse stopped," she said. "It's becoming more and more pervasive."
Sostre was cagey about what legal argument would be used in such a case, but it could range from fraud to trespass to current statutes that regulate telemarketing. And she said Seidl isn't alone in thinking about taking action over his e-mail blitz.
Said the Boulder attorney, "I've basically got a constant stream of complaints."