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When Spammers Try To Sue You

An Anonymous Coward writes: "I was looking for information about what recourse there is against spammers when I came across this site. It appears that Bernard Shifman sent email to several people trying to solcit employment via spam, and when they replied to him, asking him to stop, and reporting the spam to his ISP he threatend them with a lawsuit. It's a very entertaining read."

22 of 756 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by Iamthefallen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Free tip for Mr.Shiffman, I hear TimeCanada are looking for a new webmaster.

    And, I feel that my sig has never been quite so appropriate.

    --
    Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
  2. His Excuse... by tunah · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, really I was just replying to someone elses spam, but i guess the reply address was the mailing list. Copy of message follows:

    ===
    Date: 2 Jan 03:34:45 GMT
    Subject: Re: Make millions at home!

    Why yes, yes I *would* like to MAKE MONEY FAST!

    Bernard Shit^Hfman.

    --
    Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
  3. Replying to spammers is fun by Whelkman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Once in a while, I'll reply to the solicitors. Of course nine times out of ten it's a bogus email address, but once in a while it actually goes through.

    I got that Nigerian money laundering email twice a day for a week from the same guy before I cut him an email threatening to take a squad of tanks to his contry and turn it into rubble. To my amazement, he actually replied! He (sarcastically, obviously) invited me to attempt to destroy his country.

    I was expecting a DoS flood of Nigerian solicitations (which caused me to learn how to use procmail really fast), but, again, to my amazement, the spams stopped.

    The moral: never underestimate the threat of tanks.

    1. Re:Replying to spammers is fun by searleb · · Score: 4, Funny

      I got that Nigerian money laundering email twice a day for a week from the same guy before I cut him an email threatening to take a squad of tanks to his contry and turn it into rubble. To my amazement, he actually replied!

      Last year at the end of semester my roommate was kicking around my office reading e-mail. He recieved the Nigerian money laundering e-mail and, since he was trying to kill time, he looked up the FBI hotline number and phoned in a report of suspicious foreign money launderers. The Feds asked him for his phone number and address, and said that they would investigate it further. We were expecting the FBI to drop by the house to see some of the evidence, but they never did...

    2. Re:Replying to spammers is fun by mpe · · Score: 5, Funny

      I got that Nigerian money laundering email twice a day for a week from the same guy before I cut him an email threatening to take a squad of tanks to his contry and turn it into rubble. To my amazement, he actually replied! He (sarcastically, obviously) invited me to attempt to destroy his country.

      What gave it away was your saying "tanks". Had you said "bombers" they might have thought you were serious...

    3. Re:Replying to spammers is fun by Erik+Fish · · Score: 5, Funny

      My favorite reply to the 419 scam (found in the spamcop.geeks group on the spamcop.net news server):

      Subject: Re: Nigerian Scam ressurected
      Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 09:21:03 -0500
      From: "ISSA GIDADA" <IssaGidada@yahoo.com>

      Dear DR.ONORIODE BOBOLO,

      It is so good to hear from a fellow-countryman, having been raised and lived for many years in our most beautiful homeland, Nigeria. I want to send you my sincere thanks and gratitude for your kind offer of USD$25,000.000.00 (TWENTY FIVE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) for taking part in this funds transfer transaction.

      However, I am a businessman too, and I make my living transferring large sums of money from and to my friends, relatives, and business associates in Nigeria. Therefore, I know that you would agree, that in order to participate in this wonderful opportunity, I must have an advance monetary commitment from you -- a good faith gesture on your part -- in order to proceed.

      Therefore, I ask that you deposit just 10% ($2,500,000) of the $25M into my PayPal account as an indication that you truly possess the funds and are actually authorized to release them. Using the online PayPal service is a very convenient and secure way to transfer funds. All you need do is access the PayPal web site -- http://www.paypal.com -- open a PayPal account, deposit the funds into your new account, and then transfer the money into my existing account, which has already been set up to receive the $25M.

      You only need my email address, which you already have, to transfer the funds into my account. Therefore, the complete safety of your account, as well as mine, is guaranteed and insured unconditionally. You have asked that this matter be handled with the strictest confidentiality, and I will agree to that condition, provided that the transfer takes place in a reasonable period of time, say by Friday, 5 October.

      If the money has not been received by that time, I must assume that you are not making a legitimate offer, and that you might be someone other than who you say you are -- although I can tell by the exceptional language of your email, that is probably not the case. However, if that is the case, then I will be forced to embark upon a most unpleasant course of action that I would prefer not to undertake.

      Because I have so many loyal friends in the Government of Nigeria and the Military, and many close ties within the Security Service where you work, it would be quite easy to locate your office and your home, as well as learn the identities of your friends and relatives.

      I truly don't believe that you would want to jeopardize their health and well-being, and your own future. I will access my PayPal account on next Saturday to verify that your good-faith payment has been made. Once that takes place, we can move forward with the final transfer.

      I trust that you will not disappoint me in this matter, since the consequences for non-compliance could be quite severe. I look forward with great anticipation to working with you.

      Yours faithfully,


      Issa Gidada, JD, MMB,
      President & CEO
      U.S./Nigeria Funds Transfer Organization
      Beverly Hills, CA

  4. Oh My God by Rinikusu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jesus Christ. I just wasted 30 minutes of my life reading through that whole mess. I want those 30 minutes back!

    Do I have such a miserable life that I'm willing to spend that much time on something that affects me in no way whatsoever AND the few minutes it takes to post about it on /.????

    Man. I need to get back to work.

    --
    If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
    1. Re:Oh My God by Harvey · · Score: 5, Funny

      > Jesus Christ. I just wasted 30 minutes of my life reading through that whole mess. I want those 30 minutes back!

      Sounds like it's lawsuit time to me...

  5. Re:Tough luck... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I SUE YOU! I sue you all! I sue the Internet, you bastards!

    Bernard Shifman

    P.S. (I sue your little dog too. Please tell me what his name is so I can write it on the papers.)

  6. Funniest quote ever by tunah · · Score: 5, Funny
    How much more helpful could I be than to provide you with the appropriate e-mail address? I could engrave it on a clue-by-four and deliver it to you in Chicago, I suppose.

    Funniest thing i've read in a long time. Like my new sig?

    --
    Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
    1. Re:Funniest quote ever by vladkrupin · · Score: 5, Funny
      No, that's not that funny. The real kicker is the attorney representing Bernie Shifman (quoted from spambag.net):

      Bernie Shifman left another voice mail message for me today (this time entirely in English) informing me that he's taking me court, represented by the law firm of "Tupoy, Durak, and Bolvan", Attorneys At Law.

      For those poor non-Russian speakers... 'Tupoy', 'Durak', and 'Bolvan' are the three synonyms translated into English as 'idiot'! I bet the guy owns that law firm too!

      Yes, I am hoping for an extra karma point for 'Funny' or maybe even 'Informative'. Karma is good. But even without it it's nice to share the fun with the 99% poor /.'ers souls who are illiterate in Russian.

      --

      Jobs? Which jobs?
  7. Re:Hmm by Tsar · · Score: 4, Funny
    I hate spammers as much as the next person, but I've also sent my resume out using a nifty little script I bru'd up to a hundred or so companies.

    Really? Try these versions out:
    • "I hate crackers as much as the next person, but I've also sent my DDoS client out using a nifty little script I bru'd up to a hundred or so companies."
    • "I hate RIAA lawyers as much as the next person, but I've also sent my subpoenas out using a nifty little script I bru'd up to a hundred or so companies."
    Remember, if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the SPAM.
  8. Shifman spam and sue services by arvindn · · Score: 5, Funny


    Hi. I'm Bernard Shit^Hfman, and I do computer consultancy services. I'm looking for contract work. I specialize in spam and sue services: I offer advice on how to spam, and then sue for damages. So any time you want to make some money, you can use my phone number as a starting point.
    P.S If you don't get back to me within a month, you'll be liable for damages resulting from my going out of work. My lawyers will be getting in touch with you and you could be facing upto $1500 a day
    P.P.S wanna fuck me?

  9. US Mailing Address by 0xA · · Score: 4, Funny
    There are serveral references on the site about Bernie trying to get a U.S. Mail address from Schwatrzman. I assume he would like to send him a registered letter via the US Postal Service.

    Too bad Neil didn't give it to him. The email Bernie sent was to an alcor.concordia.ca address.

    Concordia is a University.... in Montreal....

  10. Re:Tough luck... by zbuffered · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's now just after 5am, Chicago time. Is anyone else fighting the urge to dial *67,773-391-0595 'till someone picks up, act drunk, and try to order a pizza?

    --
    Synergy is your friend
  11. DOH! by Minupla · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know you're having a bad day when the site trying to lambaste you gets listed on /.

    You know you're having a worse day when the site refuses to crash under the /. effect!

    --
    On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
  12. Re:My problem with spam by cgenman · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hmm. It looks like a beautiful morning. I'd like to share it. Let's just walk to my friend's house and and..."

    "BEAUTIFUL WOMEN WANT TO MEET YOU!!!"
    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"ARE YOU POOR, BROKE, DEEPLY IN DEBT!?!"
    &nbsp"INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES AWAIT YOU!"

    "...or maybe I'll just stay inside again today, so that I can listen to some Garcia and call them instead..."

    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN A PREVIEW OF OUR LONG-DISTANCE SERVICES?!"
    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"PLEASE DON'T HANG UP, THIS IS NOT A TELEMARKETING MESSAGE!!"
    &nbsp&nbsp"HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE COST OF HEALTH CARE FOR THE UNINSURED?!"

    "...or not. And I think my member is a perfectly adequate size, thank you very much. Oh well, at least I can just IM them."

    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR IT INFRASTRUCTURE IS!?!"
    "I BECAME A MILLIONAIRE AND SO CAN YOU!"
    &nbsp"YOU CAN BE PART OF THE ACTION AND WIN AT LORDOFTHERINGS.COM TODAY!!"
    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"I SEND YOU THIS IM IN ORDER TO HAVE YOUR ADVICE."
    "ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR RELATIONSHIP?!"
    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"SPEND EVERY YEAR IN THE BAHAMAS WITH THIS AMAZING NEW PROGRAM!"
    &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"HOT YOUNG TEENS WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU!"
    "HERE IS THE INFORMATION YOU REQUESTED!!"

    &nbsp

    "...maybe I'll just..."

    &nbsp&nbsp"rssn wmn hre cll nw"

    "damn, forgot to turn off sms. Maybe I'll just complain on slashdot."

    &nbsp"YOU HAVE JUST 2 MORE CHANCES TO WIN $10,000 BY MODERATING THIS COMMENT UP TO 5 - INSIGHTFUL."

    &nbsp

    *whimper*

    &nbsp

  13. Re:but your sig isn't necessarily accurate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is Bernie. I wanted to let you know that this is the last straw. This post and all the others like it are slander and I'm suing you, slashdot and all of its ussers who read it for making a major big mistake with me.

    Attention everyone: you must send the name of your attorney to me by 5 PM today or I will sue you for not letting me sue you and will have a major big law suit on your ass. If you really piss me off I will sue the entire country of Canada which deserves it anyways because it is not as smart as an expert IT guru from Chicago like me.

    This post cost me $2 million to write so I'm suing slashdot for my costs.

    BERNIE

  14. Insult as an art form... by Da+VinMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am humbled by the mastery demonstrated here. ;+)

    And I quote:

    YEAH, BUT HOW DO YOU REALLY FEEL?

    Matt from The Culprits' Open Letter to Spammers

    From: "Matt Hiltner"
    To: "'Neil Schwartzman'"
    Subject: Open letter to spammers
    Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 00:57:00 -0600

    Mr. Spammer, you swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As they say in Texas. I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.

    You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.

    You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.

    I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell?

    Try to edit your responses of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly.

    You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs.

    You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot.

    And what meaning do you expect your delusionally self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with us? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake? You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed drooling meatslapper.

    On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.

    You smarmy lagerlout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill.

    You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you my not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh.

    The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known, that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.

    P.S.

    You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine,conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, arassive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and generally Not Good.

    In other words, go away.

    --
    Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
  15. Hmmm by Linux_ho · · Score: 5, Funny

    [linuxho@faramir linuxho] $ telnet mail.relay.com 25
    Trying 63.192.100.60...
    Connected to mail.relay.com (63.192.100.60).
    Escape character is '^]'.
    220 CheckPoint FireWall-1 secure SMTP server
    HELO mail.microsoft.com
    250 Hello mail.microsoft.com, pleased to meet you
    MAIL FROM: bill.gates@microsoft.com
    250 2.1.0 bill.gates@microsoft.com... Sender OK
    RCPT TO: bernard@shifmanconsulting.com
    250 2.1.5 bernard@shifmanconsulting.com... Recipient OK
    DATA
    354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself

    Hi Bernard,
    I suppose having your name posted on Slashdot and having practically everyone in the IT industry know your name must be pretty humiliating given the context it was published in.

    I'm sure you've learned a lesson about when it is a good idea to back off and apologize, even when you feel you are in the right. This is probably the most expensive way I have ever seen anyone learn that lesson.

    I am offering you a job at Microsoft, mostly out of pity. Please send your resume to HR@microsoft.com with a cover letter indicating your areas of expertise, and attach a copy of this e-mail to it.

    Bill Gates
    Chief Visionary
    Microsoft Corp.
    ^D

    --
    include $sig;
    1;
  16. We owe Bernie more than this! by scoove · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bernie has done all of us slashdotters a great benefit by helping instill a meme that simplifies our lives. Just think of the ways we can save time now by immortalizing his name when we refer to disease of high-esteem, nonexistent competency fools that bark empty threats every time their useless lives are recognized for what they are.

    For example, someone sent you a totally bogus loser resume?

    "Oh geez, get rid of that resume. It's a Bernie Shifman."

    Spending the weekend cleaning up a totally fscked up wiring or server job? "Yea, I'm working late on a Bernie Shifman job."

    Bernie deserves to be imortalized as the /. poster boy for arrogant incompetence.

    *scoove*

    p.s. Anyone hear if Bernie's learned of his /. fame? Hey Bernie, your fifteen minutes are ticking!

  17. Re:Tough luck... by sharkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dial "0" to call collect. DON'T save him a buck or two.

    --

    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.