So some moron sends spam to my mailing list about, I don't know, his band touring the Boston suburbs or something. And since it's a moderated list, it bounces back to him with "not on the accept list." (And need I even mention that his message was of course both unsolicited and totally off topic for the list.)

Then I get a message back from him:

Hello, you've reached Joe's automated junk-mail filter! Please read this message carefully, it is NOT AN ERROR or a BOUNCE!

The email you sent is being withheld from Joe until you confirm that you're a real person and not an email spammer. All you have to do is send an empty message to the following address (you can probably use your mailer's "Reply" feature):

[blah blah blah]

This one-time confirmation will verify that you are real, and that your messages are legitimate and not junk-mail. Thanks for bearing with this ungainly process ... but let's face it, spam stinks!

I would like you all to do me a favor. Please take a moment to send a message to cutter@fnoof.ne.client2.attbi.com and tell him to choke on a bucket of dicks.

And make sure you confirm the message so that he's sure to see it!

Thanks!