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Spam King Living High in the Bayou
mikey573 writes "Connecticut's main newspaper, The Hartford Courant, decided to bring the issue of spam to the forefront with a top headline front page story Spam King Living High In The Bayou in its Sunday print edition. The article goes into describing the spam marketing company "Opt-In Marketing Services". The article goes too much into glorifying one person's success with spam, while failing to underscore the potential problems he has caused for others."
Now we know he's not just a jerk spammer, but he's also an idiot!
"Hi, I'm one of the most hated people in America. Here's my name, a photo of me, what kind of car I drive, and where I live."
I'm suddenly having Pulp Fiction flashbacks. I need a couple of pipe-hittin bruthas with a pair of pliers and blowtorch.
Someone else has done their homework on Scelson there is a bunch of info, including tel #s and addresses
here.
His interview makes him seem like an utter chump. Make him pay...
::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
He seems to missing a fundamental point: You do not have a Constitutional right to an internet connection. You cannot (or should not be able to) force a company to do business with you if they don't want to. If Qwest sees that they are losing customers because they provide internet access to you, they have a fiduciary duty to terminate their business relationship with you. I think I'll start buying stock in telecoms and ISP's just for the purpose of filing shareholder lawsuits against companies that cave in to spammers like this. Breach of fiduciary duty is extremely serious to large companies, and you can sue individual CEOs/board members/etc as well as the company. He wants to use the courts to force companies to provide services, the shareholders have a right to use the courts to make sure the companies DON'T provide those services to him.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
PCWORLD did a story on Opt-In suing its ISP so they couldn't be disconnected:
Opt-In Marketing Services, an e-mail advertising firm based in Mandeville, Louisiana, has filed suit against its ISP, the backbone provider, and three antispam organizations claiming restraint of trade and deceptive practices.
Opt-In Marketing Services is one of several commercial e-mailers associated with Ronnie Scelson, a well-known spammer. However, Turner says that his company complies with all federal and state regulations for commercial e-mail and asks consumers for permission before sending advertisements to their in-boxes.
In the suit, Turner claims the three antispam organizations are "sinister entities" that have conspired to put him out of business by blacklisting his Internet addresses. He says the organizations faked many of the complaints received by Qwest and CoVista, use phony names and addresses, and received donations from AOL and MSN in return for ignoring those large ISPs' efforts to send their own unsolicited commercial e-mail.
"They have their own set of rules which have no basis in law," Turner claims in a written statement. "They threaten to blacklist anyone they do not like or who has not worked out a "deal' with them. They hide their identities, refuse to give their true locations, or addresses, [and] generate fake complaints."
Of the three organizations, only Spamcop forwards complaints to ISPs or solicits donations. Julian Haight, president of Seattle-based Spamcop, admits it's possible someone faked the complaints, "but they'd have to be very smart geeks to forge the e-mail headers well enough to fool us." He also says his organization has never received money from any major ISP and does not engage in reciprocal deals, noting that Spamcop recently blacklisted AOL for a few hours after a series of spam complaints.
Spamhaus.org director Steve Linford says it's highly unlikely that anyone sent fake complaints, given that it's possible to easily verify e-mail messages by checking the logs at the ISP from which they're sent. Rather than hide from spammers, Linford has posted explicit instructions on how to locate him on the news.admin.net-abuse.e-mail newsgroup.
Linford adds that Opt-In Marketing might get more than it bargained for. "If a spammer sued us we'd go straight for discovery, find out their real names and addresses, and forward that information to the FTC and their state attorney general," he says
The e-mailer claims that CoVista Communications of Little Falls, New Jersey, was wrong to cut off part of its Internet access on April 30. According to the suit, the shutdown resulted from complaints received by CoVista and its backbone provider, Qwest Communications of Denver, from Spamcop.net, Spamhaus.org, and the Spam Prevention Early Warning System (SPEWS). All three organizations operate so-called blacklists that enable subscribers to block e-mail coming from suspected spam operations.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
He's right - it isn't. But it damn well should be.
If ever there was a sentence that motivates you to support anti-spamming groups, the spammer's words above should be it.
If I didn't ask for it I don't want it.
I joined up just now. You?
I consider his claim of great wealth and money making to have the same level of truthfulness...
"I need my particle accelerator, er, television fixed. Be careful with that degauss button..."
*boom!*
At 80 million emails per day and 3 seconds average to delete each, that means 7.6 _years_ are wasted of people's lives for each day he blasts his spam.
Anyone know what happened to that Napster-spinoff that would eradicate spam forever an bring peace and happiness to the masses?
IIRC they would use p2p software connected to mail servers where users could report certain mails as spam. combined with some nifty AI, the p2p network would start filering out spam at the servers when enough people had marked a certain mail as spam.
Or something like that... Sounded pretty cool to me when I first heard about it.
--
"I'm surfin the dead zone
In the twilight, unknown"
If he wants to spend the money to send spam, let him.
Fine, when it stops costing me money. Ever heard of metered bandwidth? His constitutional right to freedom of speech ends when I have to pay for it.
If he's running such a legitamite business, why does he have to hide who he is when he's conducting business? The last time I got an advertising flyer from Ford, it didn't have Car Sellers, Inc. or Max Cohen Motors as the return address...
Maybe we're going about this all wrong. If every time we click through it costs the sponsor $1, maybe we should ALL click through. Then not buy the product. If the ratio of costs to purchases drops, business won't consider email a viable form of promotion.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
this guy is going to get the shit kicked out of him, now that his name and hometown have been posted on an site known for being passionately anti-spam.
I didn't think that article was that positive - they did talk about some of the evils of spam:
"Once merely an annoyance, junk e-mail is quickly reaching epidemic proportions in cyberspace. Billions of such messages regularly crisscross the Internet, pitching everything from herbal remedies to X-rated websites.
The growing flood of e-mail advertising has crashed Internet servers, clogged connections and cost business untold hours of wasted employee time. It has also forced millions of bleary-eyed Internet users to undertake the seemingly endless chore of clearing the electronic clutter from their in-box."
ABUSERS: Ronald R. Scelson
[Birthdate: 12-11-71 or 72, New Orleans, LA, married]
cajunspam@aol.com / avsrscelson2000@yahoo.com / dff@yahoo.com
Amy Hoolahan [wife/sister?]
43 CYPRESS MEADOWS LOOP
SLIDELL, LA 70460 US
Home: (504) 646-2225
Work: 504-649-6248
First the article although informative was a little uninformed and written withmucho journalistic license.
Slidell is drained swampland. Not know in Louisiana for its bayous. Bayou towns are a little more south and west of new orleans and run along Highway 90. There is nary a cajun in those parts. Unless they are transplants.
Slidell is where you go to live when you can get outta the double wide. It is a white trash suburb(pardon if youlive there but it is not one of the nicest places in Louisiana. Reclaimed swamp that happens to be near a an ultra rich area, but not included.
Slidell is another case of people moving to the burbs and talking about how great it is. Slidell's greatedt claim to fame is it is a great place to piss off the interstate on your way to New Orleans.
As for the guy, yeah he is a shit. But he probably does make bank. Consider the sheer numbers of the unwashed still out there who still think the internet is a virtual gold mine. Say he gets 20 of those suckers a month to sign up at a grand a pop. Who is the real fool? Do the math 80 million email adresses are 80 potential million customers for him as well.
Sometimes people pay all of us ungodly amounts of cash for tech services(85 bucks an hour to install a printer or put the new Dell box on the lan.) Us tech guys do not have a stellar rep either.
Email campaigns do make money, for the person selling them. I have been offered good money to do them, and haven't, but depending on my job situation you never know.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Hey, robbing banks pays pretty well too.
I don't understand what you're saying. Is it that anti-spammers should lay off Scelson because what he's doing is so profitable for him? That doesn't even begin to make sense.
What are you saying?
However, data transmission SHOULD NOT be considered as long as you're paying the correct price for the bandwidth (perferrably per K-packet).
That's crazy. Kiddie porn and death threats are absolutely intolerable. Paying to transmit obviously illegal speech doesn't legitimize it.
Spam is a gray area, but it's certainly not true that you can transmit whatever you like without any limits as long as you've paid for the bandwidth.
---"If Qwest sees that they are losing customers because they provide internet access to you, they have a fiduciary duty to terminate their business relationship with you."
Does the same analogy hold true for the snail mail industry? NO.
Two words: Mail Fraud.
There are plenty of long standing laws and rules that regulate postal mail. Aside from prohibiting fraudulent advertising (as much of today's spam is), correct identification of who sent the letter is also required.
The spam idiots pay for the media, and pay for postage to my house. I just toss it away. Some are crafty and make it look like legit-like bills. Some promise prizes. It all goes to the shredder. My point is, if they pay through the nose for constand bandwidth, give them what they asked.
It's much more accurate to compare electronic spam transmission to other electronic mediums, such as telephone solicitation and advertising by sending "junk" faxes.
For telephone soliciation, a 1992 law regulates callers to identify themselves within 30 seconds. Companies who call are required to maintain "do not call lists", and the FCC imposes harsh penalties on soliciters who repeatedly call after requests to place that number on their do not call list. Many states have laws allowing individuals to sue for $200 to $1000 as well.
For junk faxes, which are the closest analogy to spam email (same or similar message sent to many numbers, to be read by receipient when they notice it later on), JUNK FAXING IS ILLEGAL.
Also illegal under the 1992 act is telephone solicitation (without opt-in or previous relationship) using pre-recorded messages. There are a few folks doing this today, as well as some companies junk faxing, and it is illegal.
Before 1992, junk faxing was not against the law, just as today there is no federal law that prohibits sending unsolicited advertising by email. Today there is no law that regulates usasage of correct headers and identification of the party who transmitted the message. Today there is no (federal) law that requires actually honoring the receipients request to not receive future mailings.
That's today. Soon there will be laws to regulate unsolicited commercial ads by email. Just as some advertisers abused telephones and faxes and lawmakers eventually responded, so they also will with spam.
And they rightly should. Just because you've paid to send some data via an ISP, you should not have any more right to send fraudulent ads with forged headers than you would to send a similarly illegal message via the USPS with a fake return address. Just because you've paid to send that message gives you no more right to ignore "don't send me any more" than a telemarketer has under the 1992 law.
There is quite a bit of legitimate use for email marketing, but at least IMHO, there's no excuse for forged headers, fraudulent advertising, and not properly honoring request to avoid more messages from the same sender. Sooner or later, these acts will be illegal (at least in the USA), and assholes like Ronnie Scelson are only serving to expedite the need for lawmakers to respond.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
And herein lies the problem. Even if we assume that he has 80 million valid registered customers (all legitimately obtained and verified), he is still engaging in tactics that should be illegal. An email, particular a commercial email, should have a real and accurate return and from address, and should have real transmission headers. If these are forged , the email is spam, even if there is an opt in list.
Furthermore, i feel the spammer should get sued by those greatly affected by the act. For instance, if the forged address is a domain not related to the spammer, that domain should have every right to sue the spammer for costs of dealing with the misdirected replies, the cost of dealing with angry customers, and the costs associated with defamation of the domain. The ISP that the spammer is doing business with should be able to cut off the spammer immediately, sue for the costs of resources used to send the spam, and any other costs associated with the spam. Maybe, in both cases, treble costs.
Let me be clear, forged headers should a sufficient condition for a commercial email to be considered spam and invoke any all liabilities associated with spamming.
Scelson, who designed the software, says it will penetrate virtually any system designed to stop ads from reaching the intended mailbox.
Of course this is another problem. I may in fact want to receive commercial email. That does not mean that I want it in my in box. Perhaps I have another place, that I review daily, that I want to filter commercial emails into. It seems reasonable that a reputable sender of commercial email would want to help me in this endevour, and in the process create a positive relationship, by using consistent mail headers. For instance the New York Times does this. On the other hand, a scum of the earth spammer, no disrespect to scum intended, would actively try to thwart my reasonable and rational system of prioritizing emails in hope of forcing me to view a message.
Furthermore, don't we have legislation about programs that actively penetrate systems without the owner's consent? Seems like this might be a good application of that law.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
This guy should have interviewed Al Capone. He could have told us how great the protection service was and how it filled a niche in the chicago market.
The author fails to mention what happens when he "bounces" messages off from those "Europeon" servers. Things like, legitimate businesses can't get their e-mail, servers crash, bandwidth charges are paid by the the people that left the relay open. Oh yeah, add to that his quote "I can touch 80 million people". If my mail servers are anything to judge by, I'd say the MOST he can touch is 1 million, generally we get more bounces from spammers than we get actual e-mail.
A liar, a thief and a con man. I sure am glad the Hartford paper decided to write about this guy. Please take a second and tell them how you feel about their article.
The Hartford Courant (CTNOW-DOM)
285 Broad Street
Hartford, CT 06115
US
Domain Name: CTNOW.COM
Administrative Contact:
DNSADMIN (DNS55-ORG) tis-dnsadmin@TRIBUNE.COM
Tribune Company
435 N. Michigan Ave Suite 917
Chicago, IL 60611
US
312-222-2814
Fax- - 312-222-4393
Technical Contact:
TIS IN, TECHNICAL CONTACT (TIT3-ORG) tis-dnsadmin@TRIBUNE.COM
TRIBUNE COMPANY
435 NORTH MICHIGAN AVE Suite 815
CHICAGO, IL 60611
USA
312-222-2814
Fax- 312-222-4393
cluge
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
Yes, we can dream about it... but that is all I recommend that we ever do about it.
:)
I do, however, advocate criminal mischief such as throwing eggs at his house and car... picketting his place of business is also a good thing to do... actually, that's probably exactly what should be done. If we actually made it bigger than Mardi Gras, it could get some serious attention from the public. From that, we can convince the 80,000 people out there who will apparently buy anything, to not answer SPAM and therefore not to pay the spammers for their misdeeds.
So let's talk about public gatherings instead of lynching.
I do believe that if one spammer dies as a result of being a spammer, it would make a serious statement but it wouldn't slow anything down... you'd have to kill two or three of them to make your cause serious. I can't get behind that though... who knows what I might be doing that pisses people off enough to make them kill me.
(BTW, I've heard that pulling out wires is an effective method of disconnection... just a thought)
Everyone who lives within 10 miles of him should get a cinder block, write their favorite spam on it("MAKE MONEY FAST!"), and drop it on his property. On a weekly basis.
After 20,000 or so maybe he'll start seeing the point.
Found 2 so far, neither of which show up among the addresses in Spamhaus' entry on him (though 1615 Hwy 190 W on Mapquest comes up as "1615 Gause" - which appears to be highway 190, and is somewhat nearby the 1317 Englewood address...), but in case it helps:
1615 HWY. 190 W.
SLIDELL, LA 70469 (504) 643-8333
1005 OLD SPANISH TR
SLIDELL
(985) 641-6041
VIDEO EQUIPMENT-SERVICE & REPAIR
Now, on the other hand, the article mentions that the shop is about 10 minutes from his house, I imagine that his house is either the 1317 Englewood address or the 43 Cypress Meadows Loop address. Anybody know if either of these video repair places are "about 10 minutes" from either of these adresses (or if, perhaps, 1317 Englewood might be the repair shop? Is it about 10 minutes from 43 Cypress Meadows Loop?)
Hmmm. According to MapQuest, the 1317 Englewood place is just off of Highway 190. 43 Cypress Meadows Loop looks like it's probably a residential area just southwest of the Airport there...in a place that looks like it's probably roughly 10 minutes drive west-northwest. So my guess is that 1317 Englewood is the TV Repair shop and 43 Cypress Meadows Loop is the home.
Perhaps some aspiring people in the area could sneak out to 1317 Englewood some evening and build a little sculpture out of cans of Spam in front of the shop?....
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