evil spammers don't reply

I get too much spam. Conventional wisdom says "don't reply, because then they know that it's a valid mail address".

Recently, I replied. The first one was "borderline". I did not know (or did not remember) her, but at least it was a "real" person. And she replied, explaining how I got onto her list. Would I prefer to be removed? No, fine.
And I replied to another mail, with several fake addresses in the body pof the mail and as alleged sender. Trying to sell me his spamming service, so I could annoy others. No reply.
But it just felt good to write "U bastard".

Two good reasons why I might reply more often in the future.