I have trouble believing that the youngest major city mayor in the United States would resort to wholesale spamming to gain votes. Politicians of his generation, unlike older statesmen, are supposed to be savvy to the ways of the Web -- and that means knowledgeable of what turns people on and off about e-mail communications.

	David Radin, a business consultant and free-lance writer, avoids giving his email address to unwanted spammers. You can contact him at www.megabyteminute.com.

But two spam messages came to me from the office of Luke Ravenstahl's campaign for election as mayor of Pittsburgh; and his people didn't know why. On Jan. 24, I got my first message (and I don't get much spam, which is what made it more obvious). It was signed by Patrick Millham, Mayor Ravenstahl's field director. The signature included Mr. Millham's e-mail address, which allowed me to find the mayor's campaign Web site. The Web site only has two pages. The first is a teaser with a large photo of Mayor Ravenstahl with the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline behind him, and a plea to be part of Pittsburgh's future. Click the text to find a sign-up form.

Problem is: I never signed up. Yet when I phoned Mr. Millham, he confirmed that 1. the e-mail was from the campaign, 2. that my address was on his list and 3. that he would take me off the list. I felt comfortable that he would do so, and that I'd never get another e-mail from the campaign. I was particularly comforted when he told me that the list is sent from his desk using his personal e-mail. But he didn't know how my name ended up on the list. He seemed to genuinely think that the only way to get on the list was to sign up online.

Case closed. Or so I thought. Until Valentine's Day. That's when I received another message from the campaign, which was part of another database mailer. (It didn't even wish me a Happy Valentine's Day.) So I picked up the phone to find out why Mr. Millham apparently didn't honor my request to be removed.

Bryce Petit, an outside contractor who maintains the mayor's e-mail server, responded rapidly. He told me that he thought the Web list was combined with other lists, but didn't know the source of the other lists. We ended our phone conversation with him promising to look into the matter. A mere 20 minutes later, he followed up with another call. He had determined that my name and e-mail address was entered through the Web form on Jan. 24, and was able to determine the connection address (IP address) of that user.

The mystery was solved. Somebody not on the mayor's campaign decided that I should be on the campaign list, and entered my name. While the practice is not as bad as stealing a credit card number, it is a form of identity theft -- passing yourself off as somebody else, either as a prank or as a means to an end.

While the mayor's campaign office was responsive, it became obvious that they had problems related to data management. Although Mr. Millham removed me from the list on his system, he didn't know to remove me from the master database; so I stayed on the "real" campaign list. The issue of multiple database copies is common; and can cause all sorts of problems for organizations -- even corporations.

Mistakes happen; so does abuse. The mayor's campaign office responded appropriately and promptly. Yet I can't help wondering what somebody had to gain by posing as me to sign me up.