How’s that for a headline? I’m shutting down Kai’s email account for a while. I made the mistake of providing it to United for his frequent flyer program membership, and I overlooked the pre-checked checkbox about receiving offers from “carefully screened 3rd parties.” Those 3rd parties are now sending him numerous messages every day for Viagra knock-offs, blind-date services, home refinancing offers, etc. I know United’s the culprit because:

• before I signed him up, he got absolutely no spam
• the spam started coming right after I signed him up
• I haven’t given his email address to any other organizations
• I signed myself up at the same time and started getting the same messages in my account.

It’s really quite despicable.

Hopefully if the spam bounces from his account for the next year or so, his name will come off the spam lists. He doesn’t really need an email account just yet anyway.