As some of you may know, I have a Talk 21 e-mail account, which has for the last three years, remained virtually spam free. Talk 21 is run by BT, and they have recently decided that too much of a good thing is not what people want, so are splitting the service into a 'Basic' webmail account, or a 'Premium' account with POP3 access, at a cost of £1.50 per month. I will probably go for the Premium account, as it's not really a lot of money (although I disagree in principal with paying for e-mail), and it would be less hassle than to change my e-mail address, which is the one I use for my online shopping, registrations, etc.
Could it be a coincidence, therefore, that I am suddenly getting loads of spam in this account (which at the moment is still free), and that the new 'Premium' service offers 'a premium junkmail blocker'? Would it be beyond the bounds of possibility, I wonder, that this new influx of spam is being generated in order to coerce account holders to sign up for the 'pay' service?