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Spammer Gets Spam Mailed

ssblood noted a story about a spammer getting what he deserves as well as a related story from the Register. Essentially the virtual spammer is capable of sending a billion emails a day, and is getting sacks of physical junk mail from irritable folks. Apparently part of this plot was hatched on familiar turf too.

138 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    ..and first post?

    1. Re:Dupe alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not only a dupe, but a lot of us watched it happen. Slashdot is posting an article about itself? I know you got married Taco (congratulations), but have you been under a rock?

    2. Re:Dupe alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There's quite a lot of duplicate news stories here, most often citing the same URL as the previous story. I'm wondering, how much work would it be to adapt the "enter new story" script the editors use to do a search for similar urls or stories in say the past month? Given the article posting rate and the amount of readers /. has, the server won't even notice, and with a search engine already in place I doubt it would be hard to implement. So what's keeping them from adopting a simple technological measure to improve the quality of their site?

      Lourens

    3. Re:Dupe alert! by tdemark · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Forget given them a tool they have to use -- make it automatic.

      As part of the subimission process, compare the included URLs to the URLs of previous stories and generate a warning page if there are matches.

      Something along the lines of:

      WARNING: Duplicate URL
      http://www.example.com/foo/bar.html
      Date: Dec 14, 2002
      Article: Article Title

      and

      WARNING: Similar URL
      http://www.example.com/foo/bar.htm
      Date: Dec 2, 2002
      Article: Article Title

      Continue with story submission?
      -Yes- -No-

    4. Re:Dupe alert! by 1u3hr · · Score: 3, Funny
      So what's keeping them from adopting a simple technological measure to improve the quality of their site?

      What's keeping them from spellchecking? What's keeping them from seeing if the links posted are valid, let alone relevant?

      After all, each "editor" must post three or even four paragraphs of text a day. Would it kill them to check it? Obviously, the answer is they don't give a fuck.

    5. Re:Dupe alert! by 1u3hr · · Score: 2
      They have to check all the submitted pages, not just the ones that end up on the site.

      No they don't; they only have to scan through the submissions (missing important submissions is a whole other story). Once they decide on a story to publish, that's the only one that needs to be checked. And since, as I mentioned, each editor only does a handful of such stories a day, this amounts to checking less than one page of text per day.

      I once worked as an editor on a news site; I had to check, revise and upload an average of 80 pieces a day (from a few paragraphs to a few pages in length), some of which were poorly translated from Chinese, and so I'm not impressed with the professionalism of Slashdot which has about 1000 times the audience of the pissy little site I had. The editors here are salaried, this isn't some fan site a teenager puts up.

      I respect the technical aspects of the massive load the system handles, even the moderation system that keeps the moronic posters down, but the simplest, primary thing is the quality of the text, and this is inexcusably bad; as is the fatuous repetition of stories which could be prevented by simple technical solutions, or just glancing at a list of stories recently published.

    6. Re:Dupe alert! by 1u3hr · · Score: 2
      Are we going to the same site, you and I? ;)

      Try viewing "all posts" and see what garbage is posted (the FPs, goatse.cx, etc). I do appreciate a system that lets you choose not to drink the bilge water.

  2. Dupe story? by vicviper · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/06/155422 7&mode=nested&tid=133

    Or should I go back to bed on a Sunday morning...

    1. Re:Dupe story? by skroz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but Taco was out with his new bride when the first one was posted. Do you really expect him to be reading his site ON HIS WEDDING NIGHT? I can see it now... carrying her across the threshhold of the honeymoon suite, gruffly depositing her on the bed, whipping out his Zaurus (no, not THAT "Zaurus..." the one with the, er, stylus. I mean, batteries... no, that's certainly no good. Digital screen, yes. The zaurus with the digital screen...) and searching feverishly around the hotel room for a nearby WAP so he can read his website.

      CowboyNeal, maybe, but Taco?

      --
      -- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
    2. Re:Dupe story? by TrumpetPower! · · Score: 5, Funny

      The zaurus with the digital screen...

      Whoah...Taco's Zarus has a digital screen? That's like, waaaay too much information.

      Cheers,

      b&

      --
      All but God can prove this sentence true.
    3. Re:Dupe story? by MacAndrew · · Score: 2

      Is this an unspoken confession the /. search engine is too horrible for even editors to use?

      Those who can not remember the past (stories) are condemned to repeat (them) (over and over and over and over). -- Santayana (sort of)

    4. Re:Dupe story? by RollingThunder · · Score: 2

      It should be easy to automate at least -link- duplicate checking, though.

      The engine already pulls all the links into a sidebar for the story. Just have it autosearch the archives for each link when bringing the story up, with a list of dupes (like dependencies in bugzilla), and then the editor can easily spotcheck any suspiciously unique duped links. IE: ignore basic www.nytimes.com, but check a deep story.

  3. The only infallible law in the universe is... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    karma...

    Ain't it a bitch?

    And I don't mean /. cheapened use of the word.

  4. "They're Out of Their Minds..." by efatapo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ok....? Getting back a little of what you dish out justifies calling people "Out of their minds". I can see if they were firebombing his house, but sending him junk mail? ;) Come on Alan, what're you thinking. This has to be the best story ever. The funniest thing I've heard today at LEAST!

    1. Re:"They're Out of Their Minds..." by jdera · · Score: 2, Insightful

      firebomb.... ya.... i like that....

    2. Re:"They're Out of Their Minds..." by jonadab · · Score: 2

      > firebomb.... ya.... i like that....

      Firebombing might be just a wee bit over the top. Instead, see if you
      can't get a zoning variance for the lot across the street and put in
      a business. Like, maybe, a paper mill.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  5. Now slashdot is getting spammed... by BlueArchon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...with old news, wonder why I even bother to point this out...

  6. Dupe. by fatbitch · · Score: 2, Informative
    1. Re:Dupe. by mshiltonj · · Score: 2

      This story is so good it could be re-posted on slashdot at least once a week and still be good every time.

    2. Re:Dupe. by vsprintf · · Score: 2

      That's true, but couldn't we get updated news - like how many truckloads of mail have been delivered?

  7. Errors in counting? by dr_eaerth · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Almost 300 anti-Ralsky posts were made on the Slashdot.org Web site..."

    Sure that sounds impressive, but how many of those were dupes?

    1. Re:Errors in counting? by Rik+van+Riel · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know this story is a dupe. The slashdot editors have re-posted the old story, instead of posting the newly submitted follow-up story to this one...

      *sigh*

    2. Re:Errors in counting? by Archfeld · · Score: 2

      speaking from past experience YES it is. Even though it seems small the MARRIED THING is DIFFERENT. Enjoy the Honeymoon cause things have changed DRASTICALLY and you won't realize it for a couple of months. The changes are not all for the worse by any means, but A-CHANGING YOU WILL BE...It is women's nature to seek to 'improve' her mate for her children's sake, and man's nature to just deal with it :)

      --
      errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    3. Re:Errors in counting? by MavEtJu · · Score: 2

      It were only 200 anti-Ralsky posts, but some were longer than average and counted for two.

      --
      bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
  8. What's so bad about Slashdot? by The+AtomicPunk · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... that the editors themselves obviously don't read it ??

  9. Dupe: A great reminder by joshua42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, keep postning this story every and then as a reminder so the junk mail pressure on this guy does not ease off...

    --

    - El riesgo siempre vive - Private J. Vasquez
    1. Re:Dupe: A great reminder by meringuoid · · Score: 2
      Yeah, keep postning this story every and then as a reminder so the junk mail pressure on this guy does not ease off...

      I don't think it's anything so malicious as that. It's just gloating. 'La la la, we made Ralsky's life hell, la la la!'

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    2. Re:Dupe: A great reminder by Danse · · Score: 2

      Yeah, except nobody is encouraging murder here. Just junk mail. The anti-abortion sites were actually encouraging people to kill doctors.

      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    3. Re:Dupe: A great reminder by Danse · · Score: 2

      First of all, /. has done absolutely nothing to incite or encourage murder. They would be blameless as far as I'm concerned if some nutjob took it upon himself to kill the guy. If they ran a positive story about it afterwards, I would consider that to be in extremely poor taste, but I don't believe it would make them even somewhat guilty of the murder.

      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
  10. Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    John Poindexter is also getting a taste of his own medicine. Check out this article. They've got his address and everything.

  11. Re:Damn you! by handsomepete · · Score: 4, Funny
    I seriously can't believe that most /.-readers, who just happen to surf by in their spare time, can spot a duplicate story quicker than an editor, who is doing it full time. :)
    I think you got those two reversed... most /.-readers do this full time and the editors surf by in their spare time.
  12. CmdrTaco needs..... by CSG_SurferDude · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let us alll forgive CmdrTaco on this cheerfull Sunday morning, since it's obvious thatCMDR TACO NEEDS TO DRINK HIS #$%#$% COFFEE before posting stories!

  13. Hmm this really isnt new by aelfgar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sending mail back to spammers really isnt new, I dont see why it hasnt become mainstreme. I get about 10-20 spam e-mails every day and I just reply to them. If you consider it, lets say a spammer sends out 1000 e-mail messages from his hotmail account. Now lets assume each one of these is 3k, if everyone replies to his e-mails and sends his own message back hotmail will shut down the account! There is no need to sign them up for anything special, just reply to their e-mails! So what if some of the are automated. I was getting spam from a company over a period of a year and kept replying to it every day. It turned out that there was a bot doining the mailing so my messages were never deleted, they just sat there. After 9 months I got an e-mail from them telling me to stop imediatly because their web-account had run out of space and their server suspended their account. Other people must have been doing this as well, or maybe my e-mails just built up over time. My point is this, always reply to ur spam mail, 3 or 4 times.

    1. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by Saint+Nobody · · Score: 5, Insightful

      never reply to your spam mail. sometimes the address will be forged, and you'll be harassing some poor shmuck. sometimes you're just replying to a bot that notes you as a valid email address. plus, if you do wind up on a spammer's bad side, you're probably more likely to be the victim of a forged address.

      by replying to spam, you're betting that your spammer is ethical. do you really want to make that bet?

      --
      #define F(x) int main(){printf(#x,10,#x);}
      F(#define F(x) int main(){printf(#x,10,#x);}%cF(%s))
    2. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by hector13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      2, points:

      1) This has to do with sending real (snail) mail to a spammer, not email. It is a lot easier to filter out email then it is to go through 300+ letters a day to figure out if any of them are important.

      2) By replying to spam emails, you are probably doing yourself nothing but harm. I agree with your basic point, if everyone replied to every spam and swamped the spammer's network, it would work. Since that isn't the case, the only thing you are doing by replying is letting the spammer know that he has a valid email address.

    3. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by BlowChunx · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think the best thing to do is to bounce it back to the spammer. I know that both KDE's Kmail and MacOS X's mail.app have this feature.

      Essentially, it's better than replying. Not only does it go back to where it came, but it also looks like your email address is invalid, potentially removing it from spammer's lists. (Kind of like the Telezapper works for telespammers...)

    4. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by Yo+Grark · · Score: 2

      ARE YOU FUCKIN NUTS?

      Spammers harvest "VALID" emails by people who respond.

      Am I lying? Check out the source code of the "remove me" link some time.

      Can't believe you support people spamming everyone....

      Or maybe this is propaganda to harvest more emails...by getting more and more people to REPLY to those emails, you will make more money

      either way

      YOU'RE NUTS, and should be duped /.'d immediately.

      Yo Grark
      Canadian Bred with American Buttering

      --
      Canadian Bred with American Buttering
    5. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by MonkeyBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I hate to break the news to you, but of all the spams I've received over the past 2 days, not a single one was SENT from the account that is listed on the reply-to address. In fact, if you read the contents of the spam, you'll usually see them point replies to a completely different address, and "remove" requests to another (usually bogus) address. In not a single case does the subnet of the sender, nor the mail server used to relay the message, match any email address contained within the spam.

      Now, that's not to say that there are idiots out there who are ignorant enough to send spam with their own return address via their ISP's mail server, nor do I mean to say that there aren't enough spam-friendly ISPs out there loaning bandwidth to spammers running their own server farms (like the scumbag weasel $!@#$@# who's currently getting ever-increasing amounts of old-fashioned junkmail). I'm just saying that it's unlikely your actions will cause the effect you intend, as spammers who operate in the manner you need are in the minority.

      --

      Moof!

    6. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by blibbleblobble · · Score: 2

      It is a lot easier to filter out email then it is to go through 300+ letters a day to figure out if any of them are important.

      Yeah, especially if some of them look really like important bills and legal documents, or domain-name renewals.

      Oops, did I just suggest something?

    7. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 2

      I'm constantly getting "Undeliverable Mail" notifications for spam that has me listed as the sender. Were I actually sending people these e-mails, I would absolutely deserve whatever bitch-slapping my recipients decided to inflict. But I'm not.

      Reverse harassment is a dangerous game, because the person you harass may be just as much a victim as you are.

      BTW, can anyone give me advice on how to track down the guy who is sending these things on my behalf?

      --

      You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

    8. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by AndroidCat · · Score: 2

      Remember, call-display blocking does not affect 800 numbers -- They will get the number you are calling from.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    9. Re:Hmm this really isnt new by Dunkirk · · Score: 2

      Gimme a break. This may have been true in the past, but I can't see how it's valid any longer. With the number of spams I bounce from my server every day - never responding to any of them - it's obvious that my email address is being sold around (and around) the globe. I used to do a fair amount of USENET back in the day, and now that Google has created their news search page, I'm toast. I'll never get away from it. As you can see, I made my address somewhat obvious and inflexible because I never wanted to change it again. That's a personal problem, but it's just that I don't think that any spammers are paying any attention to anything but the links they embed that point the responder to someplace that means, "Why, yes, Mr. Spammer, I would like to give you $5000 to put me at the bottom of some pyramid scheme." I actually have a friend who did this.

      Twice.

      Then declared bankruptcy.

      Spam won't stop until we educate everyone with email about it. I failed to intervene because I thought I had no business meddling in his affairs, but in retrospect, friends don't let friends reply positively to spam. Responding negatively won't mean anything anyway. I'm quite sure it all goes down a big black hole.

      --
      Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
  14. I was hoping by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 5, Funny
    I was hoping that this was a report of Ralsky being hospitalized for paper-cuts because of all that spam.


    If anyone is sued by Ralksky, get discovery! Get his spams and make them public so that 1000s of people can file lawsuits against him for spamming.

    1. Re:I was hoping by AntiNorm · · Score: 2

      If anyone is sued by Ralksky, get discovery!

      I know what you're saying here, but my first thought when I read this sentence was "You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel." Maybe Ralsky needs to be sent to prison for a while so his cellmates can start saying this to him.

      (In case you don't know, the above quote is from BhG's 'Fire Water Burn')

      --

      I pledge allegiance to the flag...
      of the Corporate States of America...
    2. Re:I was hoping by arnex · · Score: 2

      In case you don't know, the above quote is from BhG's 'Fire Water Burn'.

      No, actually it's not.

    3. Re:I was hoping by AndroidCat · · Score: 2
      Maybe Ralsky needs to be sent to prison for a while so his cellmates can start saying this to him.

      Oddly enough, there is another spammer known as "Bubba Catts". Google for him. (You'll find his address. :^)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  15. Re:Please help me! by haggar · · Score: 2

    I imagine the poor bastard who's email you posted is just some guy that you have some gripes with. Most readers will, I believe, ignore you, but if only 20% get in the trap, this guy's e-mail is toast.

    If he's really a spammer, post some proof of it, non-anonymously.

    --
    Sigged!
  16. Now for Phase 2 by NeuroManson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sign him up with every mailing list for porn magazines, and several Christoid magazines. Also pay a few bucks for an order of Jack Chick tracts (www.chick.com).

    Better still, spoof his IP, and create accounts on known Al Qaeda supporter websites, so the next knock he gets on the door will be from the FBI. Imagine his glee when all his funds are snatched up as money tagged to support terrorism.

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
    1. Re:Now for Phase 2 by sporty · · Score: 2

      3. Profit!

      We've finally gotten it! It's like the monkeys.. and shakespear thing.. I knew it wasn't an NP problem :)

      --

      -
      ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only

    2. Re:Now for Phase 2 by sg_oneill · · Score: 2

      Nah... Need not pay anything. I'm sure someone could make sure he pays for all he consumes...

      And I'm sure he'd LOVE some pizza!

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    3. Re:Now for Phase 2 by sbaker · · Score: 2

      Hmmm - he promised his wife he wouldn't email porn...now I wonder if someone
      could get him in deep trouble with his missus by faking porn from HIS address
      - now THAT would be punishment enough :-)

      --
      www.sjbaker.org
  17. Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Dear SlashDolts,

    Why re-post old news when there's new news available? Interesting new news, as a matter-of-fact. See:

    http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend13_20021213.h tm

    Suff That Matters, eh? Right.

    1. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Informative
      Let's clean that up at bit.
      NANAE URL from Hell account and pictures

      I haven't tried the NANAE link. I'm already there, and something bad might happen if I meet myself.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    2. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by Ponty · · Score: 2

      Wow. What an ugly house. It's a shame people don't have taste anymore. If you're going to spend $750,000 on a house, why not buy a slightly less conspicuous place that isn't fifteen feet away from another $750,000 house? Nothing says "conspicuous new money" more than a bug ugly thing with columns and no lawn and no privacy.

    3. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by Ponty · · Score: 2

      It's been my experience that criminal records or past have nothing to do with taste. A convicted Watergate participant who spent time in jail lives near me and has a lovely, tasteful house. I'm not sure where Watergate and spammer fit on the Bad Guy Continuum, but I think my point's still valid.

    4. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by dacarr · · Score: 2
      He says he just throws it away and it doesn't bother him, which is contrary to the last message saying he was quite distraught.

      On one hand, this is so good to know that he's getting this stuff.

      On the other hand, consider that it's very easy to forward "real" mail to a post office box.

      --
      This sig no verb.
    5. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by AndroidCat · · Score: 2

      Regardless of his criminal record, would he spam for penis pills and p0rn if he had any taste? Would he spam at all? (He's lying about not spamming porn in the article by the way. Spammer Rule #1)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    6. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by jonadab · · Score: 2

      > It's been my experience that criminal records or past have
      > nothing to do with taste.

      That's true. I know plenty of people who (as far as I know) are
      law-abiding citizens but who have grotesquely bad taste. (On the
      bad taste scale, grotesquely bad is a couple of levels beyond
      bad and just one step shy of blinking lime green Courier New on
      a megenta background.)

      > I'm not sure where Watergate and spammer fit on the Bad
      > Guy Continuum

      Not even comparable. Watergate was a case of getting caught doing
      something illegal and underhanded, yes, but it was a case of getting
      caught doing that to a rival organisation that, you can be stone cold
      certain, was busy trying to think of a way to get away with doing
      approximately the same thing to the perpetrators. Politicians
      sneaking around doing illegal things to other politicians before
      they do something to them first. (Politics is a dirty game; you
      don't run for public office at the federal level if you can't handle
      the possibility someone might try to spy on you illegally. Sure,
      if you can catch them you nail them with it; their bad for getting
      caught; make sure you sweep your own dealings under the rug. Did
      I mention that politics is a dirty game?) Yes, it's illegal, and
      yes, it's wrong, and yes, all the ones we catch should pay the
      price, in jail if possible. But politicians spying illegally on
      other politicians is wrong in the same sense that it's wrong for
      mob hit men to assasinate other mob hit men. It's wrong, but it's
      only worth so much of society's resources to try to prevent it.

      Spammers prey on people who have never heard of them and don't
      want anything to do with the whole business. That's different,
      not because the spammer himself is any more guilty (guilty is
      guilty), but because it's more important for society to act as
      necessary to stop it. If spammers mostly just sent junk email
      to other spammers, I'd say "sure, it's wrong, but who cares?"

      Now, about that spammer: who has the nads to try to call him
      1-800-COLLECT?

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    7. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by Ponty · · Score: 2

      That's what I mean. Lawn, garden, trees, something to make your place distinct from the other hulking ugly brick monstrosity that's next door.

    8. Re:Anti-Spam Activist Threatened by Delirium+Tremens · · Score: 2

      It seems like the tag of black car can be read from one of the pictures, no?
      Should be an easy job for the police...

  18. Clearly everyone has missed the best story... by Munra · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Clearly the best story on that page is the genius of the person using Fedex's parcel tracking to find out where Santa lives :)

    Tracking a package to Santa

    South Haven photojournalist David McCreery uses Federal Express a lot and is fascinated with the tracking feature on the FedEx Web site (www.federalexpress.com) that lets you watch as your package makes its way to its destination.

    "I send FedEx packages every few weeks," he says. "Once, I sent a package to Bowling Green and watched it leave Michigan via Flint for Memphis, come back to Flint and then drive to Ohio."

    So, this being the holiday season, he decided to FedEx a letter to Santa, wondering: "How far would a package to the North Pole go? How would it get there? Where would it end up? Who would sign for it?"

    You can follow the progress of his letter on his personal Web site (www.davidm.net), where he posted his letter and the FedEx tracking number.

    Read the results, linked from here, over here.

    1. Re:Clearly everyone has missed the best story... by CokeBear · · Score: 2

      Looks like Santa Claus is still at his summer home in Colorado.

      --
      Reality has a liberal bias
  19. Re:I dont think this is a dupe by danny256 · · Score: 2

    Ya, there were part 1 and part 2 of this story, in part 1 we all organized the mail bombing, in part 2 he calls his lawyer on us, this is a dupe of part 2.

  20. /. editors don't read the papers they cite by ravenwolff · · Score: 5, Funny

    Very interesting and sure to be controversial study that suggests most /. editors don't read the papers they cite. This means that if one paper misreads a work the misreading propagates. It's a very interesting study and has big implications for geeks, in my opinion. /. has a good overview of the work. Given that most attention to work has been in sloppy work on the experimental side (poor methadology or outright fraud) this suggests a whole other problem. A lot of the ultimate problem is that many in /. are concerned more about publishing than in solving the issues they investigate. Ideally the point both in science and in academics in general is to understand the ideas. Yet those of you who've looked up footnotes realize that actually engaging the ideas of other editors typically falls by the wayside. Often footnotes are there simply because references are needed. Engaging others works is secondary. I've always thought that the hard geeks were more immune to that effect than the humanities. I guess not."

  21. What about his lawyer? by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Considering that /. listed the lawyer's address as well, what is happening to the lawyer and the law firm?

  22. Holy /. Paradox Batman! by skinfitz · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wouldnt mind, but not only has it been covered TWICE by /. already, it was BECAUSE it was on /. that the article referenced was even written!!!!

    ARRGGHHH!!!!

  23. bored this sunday morning by deus_X_machina · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you haven't already heard...

    Taken from http://www.spamhaus.org

    found here

    Alan M. Ralsky
    Telephone: 248-926-0688
    Current email address: amr777@comcast.net

    Address : 6747 MINNOW POND DR Property ID: 18-31-177-002
    City/State/Zip: W BLOOMFIELD MI 48322-2663

    Owner Name : RALSKY ALAN M Latitude : 42.5460
    Taxpayer Addr.: 6747 MINNOW POND DR Longitude : 83.4284
    City/State/zip: W BLOOMFIELD MI 48322-2663 Census Tract: 1566.00
    Block Group : 9
    City/Vill/Twn : WEST BLOOMFIELD
    Subdivision : BLOOMFIELD PINES SUB NO 2
    School Dist : WALLED LAKE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS
    Prop Category : RESIDENTIAL
    Land Use : SI SUBURBAN IMPROVED, TOWNSHIP ONLY

    --
    "In a Democracy, people get the kind of government they deserve." -Winston Churchill
    1. Re:bored this sunday morning by hardcode · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Cool, missile addresss, now to link him to Al Queda...

    2. Re:bored this sunday morning by XorNand · · Score: 2


      Thanks!
      His new subsciption to Oprah magazine is on it's way. Merry Xmas Alan!

      --
      Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  24. Feedback? by SteweyGriffin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please forward questions, complaints, and replies to:

    ALAN M RALSKY
    6747 MINNOW POND DR,
    WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322

    Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO
    Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
    Sale Date: 8/28/2002
    Recorded Date: 9/12/2002
    Sale Price: $ 740,000

    1. Re:Feedback? by Basje · · Score: 2, Interesting

      LOL. All the junkmail arriving there will actually drive the price of the house down too. Imagine, his whole lawn strewn with it

      --
      the pun is mightier than the sword
    2. Re:Feedback? by mcgroarty · · Score: 5, Funny
      Mr. Ralsky's feedback...
      Ralsky, who is one of the biggest senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail in the world, says anti-spammers have been harassing him for the past year. Lately, said Ralsky, anti-spammers started flooding him by snail mail with coupons, brochures and ads. "I just toss them right into the wastebasket," he said. "It doesn't bother me."
      That, from an article in Detroit Free Press.

      The immature thing to do here would be to take that as a challenge, or a suggestion that you're just not trying hard enough , or that you're not yet doing your part. But thankfully, we're all adults here, right?

    3. Re:Feedback? by vsprintf · · Score: 2

      But there's still no mention of magazines. What the hell is the holdup with Publisher's Clearing House?

  25. Punishment for dupes by hubbabubba · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anybody got Taco's snail mail address? ;-)

    --
    Fried ice cream is a reality. - George Clinton
  26. What about his postperson? by cmeans · · Score: 5, Funny
    You've got to believe that this all this physical "junk mail" is causing problems for his local post person (if not the post office itself) too...maybe they'll go "Postal" on his ass just to lessen their work-load.

  27. There oughta be a weekly profile... by mtec · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's make 'dup think' work for good, not evil...

    Spammer of the week.

    Ya' know - a puff piece profile. Who they are, what they do in their spare time, what their favorite color is, name address and phone number, shirt size...

    I'm serious. Why not?

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  28. Much, much better... by NineNine · · Score: 2

    This is much, much better. You don't have to give away your e-mail address, and you can be rest assured that they'll be getting email forever. Just make one post with their email address anywhere on Usenet. They'll be on spam lists for years, possibly even getting their own spam. Just one little post will set it off. A few spammers will pick it up, use it, sell it, re-sell it, etc.

    1. Re:Much, much better... by NineNine · · Score: 2

      Sure do.

  29. more effective... by jimberini · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is great, but he will eventually straighten this out, hire someone to sort out his real mail, or learn to deal. This will not deter him. To make this guy REALLY miserable, we should send the junkmail to his neighbors addresses with his name on it! This would be especially effective using the porn junkmail!!!

    1. Re:more effective... by AndroidCat · · Score: 2

      Just because they live near a spammer? And they'll get it long after AlRal is gone. Why not just toss a brick through their window? Get a grip people!

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  30. one more thought... by mtec · · Score: 2

    Call it...

    a Lifestyles of the Kitsch and Shameless...?

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  31. Ralsky gets even! by Skapare · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alan Ralsky, who may just be the world's biggest sender of internet spam, has been getting a taste of his own medicine. But now the tide may be turning, he reports.

    "They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is." he says. "But, I will get even. I know who they are and I know what to do." he adds with a mischievous grin.

    Reports have been coming in from all around the internet about the duplicates. First there was just one or two. Then there was ten. Yesterday there were a few hundred. And today, over twenty five thousand duplicate stories have been posted on the famous geek forum called Slashdot, where the campaign against Ralsky was hatched.

    "It's not me." says Ralsky, interviewed outside his home, which is surrounded by hundreds of postal bags because no more room remains inside. He adds "I don't do story submissions. Hell, I didn't even know the place existed until a few weeks ago."

    Another truck arrives, and 3 postmen deliver 25 more bags of mail. Over half the yard is covered in bags now.

    "I know who these guys are now. My lawyers were looking into this, but I've never heard back from them, so I just had to take matters into my own hands." says Ralsky as small snicker shows up in his grin. "It's all about getting even, and I know what these people hate the most; it's duplicate stories." he goes on saying "In Soviet Russia we didn't have people doing things like this; mail bags would deliver you away."

    Ask when all this might come to an end, Ralsky replied "You just wait until I try out all the mod points I managed to get."

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  32. Under a rock? by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Funny
    No, just doesn't get around as much any more, with that ball and chain around his ankle ;-)

    Damn, and I thought this was going to be a story about another dipsh!t getting his due.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  33. Any Updates by iCharles · · Score: 2

    The repost makes me wonder: are there any legitimate updates to the story? Is he still recieving tons of s-mail? How's his legal action going? Has he had an insight, and sworn off spamming? Anyone? Anyone?

    1. Re:Any Updates by zaren · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, there was an update:

      Free Press article:

      MIKE WENDLAND: Behind the scenes, spam's even uglier

      December 13, 2002

      Bloomfield Township spam artist Alan Ralsky is in the midst of yet another controversy, this time involving an anti-spam activist who says someone left him threatening telephone messages after he took photos of Ralsky's brand-new $740,000 house.

      The activist, Rich Clark of Warren, said he's reported the threats -- which were left on his answering machine -- to police. He said it all started last weekend when he drove to Ralsky's neighborhood to snap some photos for an anti-spam Web site.

      Clark said as he was taking his pictures from the street, someone left Ralsky's house, got into a black car and tried to block him from driving away. Clark said he maneuvered around the vehicle, but was followed.

      The next day, the phone calls started.

      "You don't know who the hell you were . . . with yesterday," began the first call. "You got the wrong guy. You don't even have the guy you think you do."

      The caller then gave details about Clark's home, his driver's license number, even the bank his car was financed through.

      A second call said: "I'm going to make your life so miserable you should watch every corner you go into, bro, every second."

      The next day, there was still another message. "Just waiting for you," it said. "You haven't heard the beginning of what's going to happen to you yet. Keep your eyes open."

      Clark provided me copies of the recordings. Are they from Ralsky? It was hard for me to tell. I asked Ralsky, and he said he knows nothing about it.

      "Come on," said Ralsky, "That's ludicrous. I'm not that stupid."

      He said he had no idea who was in the black car that Clark said left his driveway. "I don't have a black car," he said. "And I'm 57. I'm not about to go chasing anyone. But what was that guy doing taking pictures of my house for, anyway?"

      Clark says he took the pictures to post on an anti-spam Web site (he hasn't decided which one). He now plans to add the audio files from the phone messages.

      Warren police said Clark's report is on file, but there is no investigation in progress.

      Ralsky, who is one of the biggest senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail in the world, says anti-spammers have been harassing him for the past year. Lately, said Ralsky, anti-spammers started flooding him by snail mail with coupons, brochures and ads. "I just toss them right into the wastebasket," he said. "It doesn't bother me."

      You might also want to check the following Usenet thread in news.admin.net-abuse.email:

      Google News

      which includes links to mp3s of the threats left on his answering machine.

      --
      Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
    2. Re:Any Updates by Eggplant62 · · Score: 2

      I've posted my story on a website here. I got too curious and decided to go for a ride, since this guy was right on the way home from a service call at work. Best to hit the photo mirrors here so the photo sites can be a bit more distributed.

      I had a story submission on this that Taco and his bunch have sat on since Friday morning. Why?

      Rich

  34. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by TheLink · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's not a taste of his own medicine.

    A taste of his medicine would mean everyone keeping track of where he is going and what he is doing. e.g. everyday someone sticks gps modules on his cars and puts the info on a website. Someone pointing a webcam at his front door (not his bedroom window).

    People calling up his home phone number and pestering him or his wife is something totally different. That's like telemarketing.

    BTW the article sucks too. No imagination. Sure you don't like that person or what he's doing, but how does asking members of the public to call his home phone help?

    The article also talks about California seceding. Where does CA get water from? They are going to have to build a lot more waterworks from north to south. Not sure if north CA has enough water to cover the south's needs as well as its own. I'm sure some states would be fine with CA leaving, since they'll have a better chance of getting their fair share of water. Mexico might even start seeing the Colorado _river_ again.

    The US-ca could start charging California a lot more for electricity from the Hoover Dam too.

    Then the US-ca could indulge in a bit of schadenfreude: watching everyone in California battle each other over the power and water issue: the usual "no nuclear power", "no fossil fuel plants", "not in my backyard" etc.

    Silly article.

    --
  35. Funny.... by PunchMonkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Funny... I thought Groundhog day wasn't until February...

    --
    I'll have something intelligent to add one of these days...
  36. Re:Please help me! by sg_oneill · · Score: 2

    Mate, I'd just suggest gettign a new email addy and letting him know it's restraining-order time if he keeps it up.......

    Conflict resolution..It's anifty thing.

    --
    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  37. Re:The two faces of Ralsky... by mtec · · Score: 2

    Well, you gotta expect the guy has more'n one face... He's a spammer!

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  38. Now that everyone knows who he is... by exceed · · Score: 2

    Now that everyone knows who he is I get the feeling some crazed anti-spammer is going to go kill the poor guy. I mean, some of us really do hate spam that much, don't we?

    --

    void women (int money, time_t time);
  39. Ralskys House by spacefight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I guess you're all interested in this, ok, more or less :) Yes, the Jaguar actually followed the spotter and he got threaten on his voice mailbox. Mirrors here.

    1. Re:Ralskys House by jonadab · · Score: 2

      > If you zoom in photo that has the car in the driveway the plates
      > have been blured out.

      Photographs are always like that when you get to the limit of their
      resolution. The image just doesn't have enough information to pull
      out the plates. You have to zoom all the way in just to see for
      sure that there *is* a plate, and it's about six pixels high. It
      would, however, be easy enough for someone with a lot of spare time
      to watch his street over several weeks and see if a black jaguar
      comes to and from his house frequently... that wouldn't prove it
      was the same car, but it would provide a good lead for further
      investigation. Of course, asking somebody to have that kind of
      spare time is a little much. A hidden webcam might be a more
      realistic approach...

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  40. New picture of The House that Spam Built by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny

    He's made a few modifications to reflect the business that he runs from his house. (Hope he's got a business licence for that.) Enjoy!

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  41. Strange co-inkydink by mtec · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was looking up some information about Sir Walter Raleigh and I came across a new word!

    'Ralsky'

    SYLLABICATION:
    ralsky

    PRONUNCIATION:
    ral - skee

    ADJECTIVE: Inflected forms: ralskeer , ralskyest 1. Slow to learn or understand; obtuse. 2. Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes. 3. Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless: a stupid mistake. 4. Dazed, stunned, or stupefied. 5. Pointless; worthless: a stupid job. 6. Boasting to a newspaper writer ill- advisedly


    ex.He ralskyed about his windfall and then the IRS confiscated his belongings Huh! Go figger...

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  42. Get yourself off some lists easily by stomv · · Score: 4, Informative

    We don't like direct marketers, but we should have the least amount of venom for the The Direct Marketers Association. They maintain legitimate opt-out lists for email, telephone, and junk mail. Not every "marketer" uese 'em, but those that do use the lists only use them to opt customers out.

    If it reduces just some of the harassment, isn't it worth it?

    Less junk mail
    Fewer telemarketers
    Less spam

    And BTW: don't be lazy and use the $5 Internet option. Print out the page and pop it in the post for less than 10% of the cost.

    1. Re:Get yourself off some lists easily by AndroidCat · · Score: 2

      As far as anyone can tell no one uses those lists -- except as a source of valid email addresses to add to their next "millions" CDROM.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    2. Re:Get yourself off some lists easily by Steve+B · · Score: 2
      They maintain legitimate opt-out lists

      Do they also maintain honest swindlers, virginal prostitutes, and pacifistic terrorists?

      --
      /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  43. Nyet. by TheLink · · Score: 2

    In Soviet Russia - people queue up for spam...

    And that's just to _look_ at the one and only can (it's not for sale after all). ;)

    --
  44. y'know I think they shoulda classified that... by mtec · · Score: 2

    as a verb...

    Stupid dictionary.

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  45. Use Chimera on a... by mtec · · Score: 2

    Mac

    That works.

    --
    Cake or Death? Cake Please!
  46. In case you missed it the first time... by gregsv · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...and want to have the satisfaction of signing Mr. Ralsky up for a few more mass mailers, here's his address which was posted the last time this story appeared.

    Buyer: ALAN M RALSKY
    Buyer Mailing Address:
    6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
    Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO
    Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST
    BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
    Sale Date: 8/28/2002
    Recorded Date: 9/12/2002
    Sale Price: $ 740,000 (Full Amount)

    1. Re:In case you missed it the first time... by jonadab · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > the satisfaction of signing Mr. Ralsky up for a few more mass
      > mailers

      Signing him up for mass mailers lacks imagination and is easy for
      him to counter. (Bulk mail is usually obvious and easy to sort
      out.) Some better ideas...

      * Send him a personal letter in a hand-addressed envelope.
      (Don't be nasty; that would just be grounds for a lawsuit.
      You could explain why you don't like spam, though, and ask
      to be taken off all his lists. But be courteous about it.)

      * Send "pen pal" mail to a few hundred thousand third-graders
      with his name and return address. (This one might be illegal;
      consult a lawyer first. IANAL, just brainstorming here.)

      * Send him a can of Hormel product, nicely wrapped, with a
      gift card.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  47. How many lifetimes has he wasted? by sbaker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was always impressed by Steve Job's comment to the guy who was writing the Mac bootstrap code. The guy was complaining that it wasn't worth optimising the bootstrap loader any more because it was fast enough already. I don't Steve's exact words - but it was something like: We will sell 100 million of these machines - if each of those people boots their machine once a day for five years - then that's 15 billion reboots. If you can save just one second from the reboot time of the Mac then that's 480 YEARS saved.

    So shaving one second of the boot time is like saving the lives of 50 people. What
    could be a more noble activity than saving human lives like this.

    So - applying that math to this spammer: If he sends out ten million spams a day and it takes 1 second to delete each one - and if this guy does that every day for five years - then that's morally equivelent to murdering 50 people.

    Just because the damage he does to each individual is small, the cumulative damage is huge.

    There is another story (probably apochryphal) about the guy writing the banking system software who changed the code to take the roundoff error (less than a half cent) from every interest calculation and direct it into his personal account. The story goes that he made tens of thousands of dollars a week. This story probably isn't true - but should such a person be considered any less a criminal because the money he stole was spread so thinly? Obviously not - he stole those thousands of dollars and that's that.

    This spammer deprived the people of the world of 50 human lives - he should be considered a mass murderer and treated accordingly.

    --
    www.sjbaker.org
    1. Re:How many lifetimes has he wasted? by Rich0 · · Score: 2

      If he sends out ten million spams a day and it takes 1 second to delete each one - and if this guy does that every day for five years - then that's morally equivelent to murdering 50 people.

      Considering your post made it to +5, do you realize how many /. readers you've just killed by the same logic? I wish I could say I only spent 1 second reading your comment... :)

  48. Unsolicted bulk mail prohibited; spammers will be by BeyondALL · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hehe - I just ran a e-mail validation on that mail-adress:

    [Contacting mx00.comcast.net [24.153.64.1]...]
    [Connected]
    220-mtain01 -- Server ESMTP ("Comcast Messaging System")
    220 Unsolicted bulk mail prohibited; spammers will be prosecuted
    HELO Network-Tools.com
    250 mtain01 OK, [66.46.181.116].
    VRFY amr777
    252 2.5.0 Possible remote address not checked.
    RSET
    250 2.5.0 Ok.
    EXPN amr777
    550 5.7.2 EXPN command has been disabled.
    RSET
    250 2.5.0 Ok.
    MAIL FROM:
    250 2.5.0 Address Ok.
    RCPT TO:
    250 2.1.5 amr777@comcast.net OK.
    QUIT
    221 2.3.0 Bye received. Goodbye.
    [Connection closed]

    --
    "If you keep an open mind people will throw a lot of garbage in it."
  49. Re:Heh... by Alizarin+Erythrosin · · Score: 2

    (pity there isn't a more environmental solution available)

    What if we erected bilboards on the sidewalks (or some other area off his property) that only face his house, with ads for things that get spammed to us such as debt reduction, penis enlargement, baldness cures, etc. They have to be obnoxious ads in all caps with misleading titles. Maybe we can put some Retina-Scorcher(tm) floodlights on them too so he'll see them bright as day even though his eyelids.

    --
    There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
  50. And those lists are available to...? by Corvaith · · Score: 2

    It says that even non-members can 'take advantage' of the opt-out email list.

    So... any bets on how many of those non-members actually swipe the emails?

    They say they only provide the companies with the lists so that they can remove them, but how exactly do they go about *checking*?

  51. Better plans yet ... by nano-second · · Score: 3, Funny
    Read this article (hilarious in it's own right) about the postal experiments

    In particular note the bit about the fish and seaweed being mailed: "postal supervisor warned our mailing specialist that he could be fined for mail service abuse, even as a recipient, should this happen again."

    I think just signing the guy up for mailing lists is missing out on the truly beautiful possibilities offered by the USPS.

    --
    I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
  52. Re:Dupe story? That's ok! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's a great chance to rake in the karma! Just go back to the original post and copy some of the +5 posts.

    On a more serious note, however, I have just right now been struck by a great (original) idea, and have decided to write this, a spontaneous and completely original, post:


    I am writing this article to request something for a terminaly ill boy.

    Alan M Ralsky is a seven year old boy who has terminal cancer. His ambition before he dies is to be included in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest collection of post cards.

    My request is that EVERYONE who reads this posting send at least one post card to him at:

    Alan M Ralsky
    6747 Minnow Pond Dr
    West Bloowfield Township, MI 48322-2663

    Please pass this information on to as many people as possible. Let's make a child's dream come true before its too late.

    Best wishes.

    A hopeful person.
  53. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by Peahippo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    To add and update a bit to this:

    Some guy came up with a plan to fill bags (100ft wide and 800ft long) with Northern CA river water (in excess) and tow them to Southern CA (where it's needed). Recently, this plan was shelved since one of the first steps (California-wise, at least) involved environmental-impact studies for the rivers the bags would be filled from. The studies would have cost $1 million per river.

    I think this sums up CA's problem; progress is definitely dampened by such reluctance to move into the unknown, and the level of assurance desired is simply too expensive. That, and the fact that you shouldn't build cities in the desert or even an arid land.

    To expand upon this article with personal opinion:

    I think the USA has more than lost national identity and will Balkanize within a generation. But like the Congress thinking that declarations of war are "anarchronistic" (ref. Rep. Ron Paul), actual secession will also be an anachronism. The secession will be accomplished by other means. A mixture of official and unofficial methods will be used to make sure that Californians stay in, and non-Californians stay out. We kind of have that kind of thing now, scattered over America as local policy; if you are a Black man, try wandering around your town's wealthier sections and see how long it takes before a cop stops you ... and takes you back home (... or to the "big house" ... remember, as soon as you stop moving on the public way, you are "loitering" and thus subject to arrest).

    To dimly predict, it might occur that the CA legislature votes for an "assurance bond" for people moving into CA. To live there, you must present $10000 in cash or a bond good for same to local authorities. Of course, this doesn't say "you can't live in CA", but for people unable to come up with $10K, it does say that ... and official language once again doesn't match unofficial intent. (I modeled this prediction on the experience of a petroleum engineer and his wife (a teacher) when they moved to New Zealand for a year. NZ required them to have $50K on hand just to get into the country.)

    Time will tell. That's the good part about the future ... it's going to arrive anyway, so you'll find out eventually.

    --
    [also misbehaves on Kuro5hin as Peahippo]
  54. Larry Niven was almost right by AndroidCat · · Score: 2
    When he wrote about the problem when a small fraction of everyone in the world can suddenly concentrate on a single location and overload everything.

    Substitute the Internet for teleportation and if, instead of "Flash Crowds", he'd called them "Slash Crowds"... :^)

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  55. new story here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
  56. What about telemarketers calling him ? (dupe) by clarkie.mg · · Score: 2

    Hey let's go further, let's give his phone number to telemarketers. He is a supposed millionaire, I am sure he would be delighted to receive wonderful business opportunities by phone.

    I'm sure some slashdot reader knows someone who can insert him in some databases of people to "telemarket".

    Oh wait, why not sell his information. After all, others do it every day otherwise I wouldn't receive those calls for a security for my house.

    (Sorry if this post is redundant, I haven't read all the posts)

    --
    Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
  57. Lawsuit? by dacarr · · Score: 2

    Yes, this is a rerun. Would somebody tell me when he actually files the lawsuit?

    --
    This sig no verb.
  58. Redundant by DaytonCIM · · Score: 2

    Are the /. editors going to keep posting this same story every week?

    12/6 Story: HOWTO: Annoy a Spammer
    11/25 Story: Spam King Lives Large off Others' E-Mail Troubles
    11/22 Story: Another Millionaire Spammer Story
    11/13 Story: The Economics of Spam

    Enough already.

  59. Re:Rasky = Electronic Stalker? by dacarr · · Score: 2

    How would you propose proving it's Mr. Ralsky sending you the spam though?

    --
    This sig no verb.
  60. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by vsprintf · · Score: 2

    I think this sums up CA's problem; progress is definitely dampened by such reluctance to move into the unknown, and the level of assurance desired is simply too expensive. That, and the fact that you shouldn't build cities in the desert or even an arid land.

    California's real problem is that it is so self-righteously "green". They've regulated themselves out of alternatives, which they displayed so well during the power outages (all the while claiming the problem was "deregulation").

    Now, the only course left is for California to use its huge congressional contingent to pass legislation that keeps upstream states from taking water from the Colorado river. I'm an ex-Angelino, and I think the solution to California's problems is to nuke LA. It couldn't be any more unlivable than it is now.

  61. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by Courageous · · Score: 2

    I used to get Green Mountain Power, but California did something to the legal climate that made them fold up shop. How this is categorized as "self righteously green" I can't imagine.

    C//

  62. Dupe check by MacAndrew · · Score: 2

    They talk about this somewhere in the FAQ that a simple link check often does work. So we get dupes even where the links are identical?

    The sanity check could compare the language of the cited articles for overlap, or a preponderance of keywords. I know the slashdot software is under continuous development, who knows what is in the works.

    But here, I think a pretty quick check for the spammer's name or the link would have done the trick. I don't know whether it was attempted, but if not that small time savings for the editor consumes many times the time of the posters.

  63. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by vsprintf · · Score: 2

    If I understand your comment, you proved my point. California regulated a lot of companies out of business in the name of environmental goodness (green). California is loudly pro-environment but expects all the other states to provide it with power and water.

  64. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by vsprintf · · Score: 2

    Oh, wait. That was a joke, wasn't it?

  65. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by Peahippo · · Score: 2

    This leads to another of my predictions which I've advocated (yes, I mean "I support enthusiastically the idea of") for years: the water wars out in the American West.

    There are just too many urban areas in too arid of climates. They draw so heavily on available water that rivers fail to reach the sea and aquifiers drain so much that the land sinks. Their appetite for water (and to be fair, that of farmers and industries) is simply too high. So they must use force in some respect to get more water.

    I live near a Great Lake, and have seen more than enough attempts to get some of that water out West. If we let them, California alone would pipe out Lake Erie until the lake became a river.

    As time goes on, the demand will just get worse, and there must be instances of crisis when a drought hits. The Californians will indeed bend the national Congress over their knee and spank them until they pass a law making Midwestern states dig the Great Lake pipeline. And then the shooting will start in ernest. (After all, there's no way to secure a pipeline; a little dynamite can always be brought into the argument, making CA's need and authorization a moot point.)

    --
    [also misbehaves on Kuro5hin as Peahippo]
  66. That's great!!! by ToasterTester · · Score: 2

    I wish I could forward the couple hundred pieces of spam I get a day to this guy. Spammers should have to pay to use the internet then take the money to help maintain the internet infrastructure. Truckers and other commericial vehicles have to pay extra fees for using the interstate system of highways to run their business. I don't see have spammers are any different using the internet for business.

    I should be able to charge spammers for the percent of my bandwitdh they are using that I have to pay for. I hate junk snail mail, but at least they have to pay postage, that in long run helps pay for running the post office system.

  67. John Poindexter is getting a full three courses by leonbrooks · · Score: 3, Informative

    Meta-discussion here. Note the signatures of Gorge Bush and Oliver White displayed prominently at top right.

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  68. There must be a way to automate this! by leonbrooks · · Score: 3, Informative

    Send a bounce to all of the addresses listed, if it succeeds, add the email address to a list, poison a few random fake blogs with it, and auto-subscribe it to every web site with a form on it that you've found from spidering links in spam. Fight spam with spam, excellent idea! Just sending the bounce will make the bouncing address a spam target, so after a while you wouldn't even need user intervention, since most of the weird form field questions would have been answered and your addresses would really be out there. Your spam-harvesting spammer introduction agency would have hit critical mass. (-:

    As a side issue, you could listen for worms and email viruses, sending the attacking machines a gratis copy of the Debian installer, with a suitably educated, er, bootloader. (-:

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  69. Re:Balkanization by Peahippo · · Score: 2

    I recognize your argument, but it seems to me that there are two problems with it.

    Firstly, once Balkanization occurs, legal remedies won't exist. Hell, this happens now. Ohio's Supreme Court just ruled for the third time about the unconstitutionality of the way public schools are funded. Why 3 times? There are other reasons, but I must point out the attitude that the Governor and leading legislators expressed when they dismissed the ruling. How can a governor and legislators just ignore their own state 's Supreme Court? Easily ... they just do it, and the rest of us do nothing about it. So I have no confidence in the application of legal remedies to anything CA might do directly to enforce a virtual wall along their borders.

    Secondly, commerce is one thing, and residency is another. Now, if the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) has definitively ruled on the issue and has linked commerce and residency, then I'd agree more with your point. But to my knowledge they haven't ... thus, your case seems further weakened.

    IANAL, BISHBO (but I should have been one)

    P.S. Have you considered that perhaps vastly increased housnig prices is CA's way of making people post an assurance bond? Just speculating freely.

    --
    [also misbehaves on Kuro5hin as Peahippo]
  70. Invoices work better by leonbrooks · · Score: 3, Funny
    Ihave a line ton the bottom of my corporate website which says:
    If you would like us to read email for USD$1000 per page, payable in advance, send it here.

    `here' is a unique, randomly-generated email link like this one: `Bill-Me-USD1000-and-Read-This.-1243363468-3707143 8@$COMPANY' and `payable' is a link to a page describing terms:

    Email-Perusal payments!

    Perusal of enquiries with regard to payment for standard perusals is carried out at no charge, unless mention of solicitors, lawyers, lawsuits or court is made in the enquiry, at which point our standard perusal fee of USD$1000.00 per email, payable in advance, applies.

    If you have an enquiry which is not covered by the information on this page, we reserve the right to quote portions of your enquiry on this page to aid in providing information to users of our services.

    We have the following payment methods available:

    PayPal direct

    Click this button and follow instructions to pre-pay an email perusal, and paste your unique email address into the reference field:

    Include your credit card details in the email

    Since perusal is flat-rate per email, adding information to an email incurs no additional fees. Remember to include the following details:

    Your name
    Your postal address, if you require an airmailed receipt
    Your normal email address, if you require an email receipt
    Your reference (a unique email address from this site or our invoice number)
    Type of card (Visa, MasterCard, Amex)
    Full card number, and confirmation number if any
    Full expiry date as shown on the card

    Since email is unencrypted, we recommend that you use the following option in preference. There is no additional processing fee for successful payments using these methods.

    Send your card details using a secure form

    Name of purchaser:
    Postal address if printed receipt required:
    Email if emailed receipt required:
    Reference email or invoice number:
    Amount (USD$1000 per email):
    Card type:
    VisaMasterCardAmerican Express
    Full card number:
    Confirmation number, if available:
    Expiry date as it appears on card:
    Click when done to send:

    Inexact Payment Values

    Where the amount undergoes a currency conversion, the value actually drawn from the credit card may differ slightly from the amount specified. $COMPANY endeavours to predict financial trends where possible so that any variation results in a lower fee charged rather than a higher, but cannot warrant that this is will always be so in practice as currency value variations are not within $COMPANY's control.

    Security Policy

    Credit card details are discarded after payment has been executed. This website is hosted on a secure and regularly updated Linux-base webserver, which in the course of normal operation is a reasonably solid gurantee of the security of information passing through it. However, $COMPANY does not warrant the security of information submitted to any on-line service, and information submitted here is provided at the submitter's risk.

    Thank you for your custom.

    Never once had a second piece of spam to those addresses, and that domain's got the least spam of any in my possession. (-:

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  71. So... by leonbrooks · · Score: 2

    ...were you representing the DA's office and asking them about Ralsky's drug charges or checking to see whether the lawyers were on drugs because they represent him?

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  72. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by Courageous · · Score: 2

    No, I don't think you get it. Green Mountain Power was an alternative clean power company. California's regulatory climate put the only accessible environmentally conscious power company available in southern california out of the direct power business. Wierd, eh?

    C//

  73. Re:Next time get back out and photograph the follo by Eggplant62 · · Score: 2

    What, and get slapped with a stalking charge if I'm caught once again? Nah, I have other operatives who can do that dirty work for me.

  74. Re:Heh... by jonadab · · Score: 2

    > What if we erected bilboards

    In his neighborhood, you'd probably need a zoning variance for that.

    > Maybe we can put some Retina-Scorcher(tm) floodlights

    Anybody got a spare airport beacon? Say, while we're getting a
    zoning variance, we could put in more than billboards across the
    street. A place of business, perhaps, something legitimate, though
    by pure coincidence it may be also a tad hard on property values.
    The ecconomy, being down, needs more industry, right?

    --
    Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  75. SpamBouncer by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 2

    http://www.spambouncer.org/ - Procmail-based, also includes this feature. Also easy to rip out the bounce subroutine and integrated it with your own recipes if you wish, as I have.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  76. Go door-to-door by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 2

    If his neighbors don't know who he is and what he does for a living, calmly educate them as to wheir the shit in their mailbox is coming from.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  77. DMV records by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 2

    It's obvious that he used your license plate to get your name and address from DMV records.

    I suggest you do something similar - Find out if Ralsky owns a black Jaguar.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  78. Re:bullshit by rmohr02 · · Score: 2
    You have to give them a name AND a destination.
    Name: Santa Claus
    Destination: The North Pole
  79. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by vsprintf · · Score: 2

    Green Mountain Power in SoCal? When was this? I left in '91, when the handwriting was on the wall. I think I was current with the issues (especially concerning the SCAQMD), but I don't recall that name.

  80. Re:Spammers?John Poindexter is getting a taste too by Courageous · · Score: 2

    I don't know when they started providing. They ended during the Power Crisis. Think that was early 2001, maybe. Or late 2000. I had them for a year or two. Funny part was, I couldn't get our office "environmental nut" to get them. The power cost about the same, but it was _cleaner_. No go. Friggin' hypocrit.

    C//