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When Spammers Try To Sue You

Posted by timothy on from the a-reputation-of-solid-gold dept.

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."

2 of 756 comments (clear)

  1. Why hasn't SpamCop been mentioned? by Tsar · · Score: 5, Informative
    I'd have thought that someone would have brought up SpamCop by now. Is there a better service that I don't know about?

    Anytime I get a spam, I hit the link that I received when I registered with SpamCop, and paste the email (complete with header) into the provided textbox. SpamCop processes the email, compiles a report of the offending spam, computes the appropriate reporting addresses, and delivers a copy to each one.

    It even allows you to add text to the beginning of the report. I always add this:
    The electronic mail message referenced in this report was transmitted to a user or users of an electronic mail service based in the state of Tennessee, USA, in direct violation of Tennessee Code Title 47, Chapter 18, Part 25: "Unsolicited Advertising by Electronic Means." See http://www.spamlaws.com/state/tn.html for the complete text of this law.
    Does that make me a bad person?

    --
    Tsar's Hypothesis: As the population of the Earth increases, the sum of human intelligence remains constant.
  2. Re:Replying to spammers is fun by Col.+Klink+(retired) · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is the reply I last received from enforcement@sec.gov:

    Dear Investor:

    Thank you for taking the time to forward to us another instance of advance
    fee frauds. I have fwded. it in turn to the Secret Service at:
    419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.

    Our only request would be that you be kind enough to forward any additional
    iterations of and/or variations on the Nigerian advance fee fraud spam you
    receive directly to the Secret Service. That Federal agency is handling
    this matter, and it would be a great help for you to send them to the Secret
    Service instead of the SEC: 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.

    Again, thanks for your e-mail.

    Sincerely,

    Jim Daly
    U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
    Office of Investor Education and Assistance
    (202) 942-7173, (202) 942-9634 (fax)
    oiea@sec.gov

    --

    -- Don't Tase me, bro!