Slashdot Mirror
Spammers Busted
Scud_the_disposable_ writes "CNN has posted an article about the "shutting down" of several spammers who sell fake international driver's licenses. These licenses are supposed to win back suspended driving priviledges, and make holders immune to speeding tickets and other traffic violations." What makes me even more sad is that people fell for it. So far today is a slow spam day for me. Only 81 spam, but its only 9:30.
They weren't actually busted for spamming.
Ok, it's good the FTC is cracking down on illegal/fradulent product spammers. But that still leaves all the spammers who are selling legitimate products (such as all that refinancing crap, I suppose that could be real), and then what about all the spammers from overseas? And the US ones will find a way to base their operations overseas should the need arise. What about sending them from the middle of the ocean in International waters?
We still gotta fix the Internet mail system. It would probably take the support of *shudder* Microsoft in an upcoming version of Windows to affect a major change like that. Or a saavy small company with good PR/marketing.
If you are referring to that one case where a spammers address was published on Slashdot, it was perfectly acceptable. Why? Simple: the man was not caught. What people were trying to do was call attention to the fact that there need to be laws to stop spam. When we sent massive amounts of letters to the guy's house, it was perfectly legal. That is what needs to be changed. The point was that this man was not doing something illegal, when he should have been.
Another thing: he continues to do it! If a rapist is in jail, they are not raping anybody. This man, however, is probably as we speak signing deals with XXX PENIS XXX ENLARGERS XXX SEVENTEEN INCHES XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!.
Sheesh, 81 spam e-mails so far today? I guess I really don't appreciate how much of a problem this is for American's, especially the ones who have been around for a while with the same address.
My e-mail address tends to change every 2-3 years. So far I've had this new one about 5 months perhaps, and only get one spam e-mail every week or so. Of course, I don't know how much of this is because my ISP is doing its part to stop spam.
Nevertheless, this sounds like a small victory. Unless I misunderstand...
for shutting them down.
It's the fact that the advanced driving licences these guys sell enable free citizens to drive around freely, throwing down the chains of the goverment. All these driving restrictions are just irrational restrictions installed by the goverment to ban people form exercizing their human right the drive anywhere they want and how faster ever they want.
It's no coincidence that after 9/11 the number of driving restrictions raised by 236.7 percent, even after the increase of 37.89 percent when Bush became president.
Such laws are just there to get people used to a climate of restriction and oppression where the goverment can do anything they want. In Soviet Russia for example only 50 mph of the streets where allowed and for driving more then 80 miles any from your hometown you needed a special passport.
Does this ring a bell ? Ashcuft anyone ?
Sorry, but this "spam" argument in this case is just another goverment scam to fool people like the moon landing and the SDI system.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
I whould sell the following service:
Choose the sex of you future child, money back guarentie.
FRA: STFU GTFO
Anyone asinine enough to send spam does not need to be contributing to the gene pool.
Burning Karma makes me feel all prickly inside though...
Many people throw away money like these irrevocable drivers license, Nigerian bank scams, the stock market bubble.
The people doing this are trying to cheat, and beat the system, playing games they don't quite understand.
They deserve to lose their money.
If you try to steal millions from the people of Nigeria, I hope you DO lose your money.
If you want to get an irrevocable license so you can keep drinking and driving and killing people I hope you lose your money (among other penalties).
If you go and throw every penny you have at some complex financial system you can't possibly understand hoping to make a quick buck, you get what you deserve.
People need to take responsiblity for their own actions.
That being said, fraud isn't acceptable and should be punished. But a reasonable person should be able to tell these are scams.
So far today is a slow spam day for me. Only 81 spam, but its only 9:30.
You need to work smarter, not harder, Taco. I'm sure that if you apply yourself, you can come up with, say, a Perl script to send hundreds, or even thousands of spam by 0900 each and every day...
In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
-- Yun-Men
---
We have just released 2 Million freshly extracted Canadian email addresses.
Just for this week, you can download these for only US$29!
Now you can send emails to only people who reside in Canada.
To order yours, please fill in the form below and email it back to ***********@btamail.net.cn
Make sure you put "ORDER" in the SUBJECT line.
---
(addressed blanked out, I don't want to send them more business!)
I know I've sent tonnes of complaints to the ISPs involved with btamail (though SpamCop), but I wonder if there's a more direct or effective approach... especially since I'm certain they're pimping out *MY* E-mail address in their "freshly extracted" batch.
Yeah. I'm bitter.
We will probably always be stuck with spam.
...and then we find people who believe they can buy a drivers' license that'll reinstate their revoked one and make them immume to speeding tickets.
I keep looking at it and saying, "Who buys this stuff? Who's so stupid to buy stuff from a spammer?" I look at it and wonder how spamming could possibly be profitable.
As P.T. Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute, and I get the feeling if he were around today, he'd find lots of money in spam...
I don't know about the other ones, but #2 is a perfectly valid e-mail.
Picture this: Jimmbob replies to an email to have his IQ raised. Jimmbob purchases said product, fully expecting to get smarter. Jimmbob, after buying sugar pills for $75, doesn't feel any smarter, cannot grasp how the little man in the fridge knows exactly when he's going to open the door, and realizes that he has been ripped off. It is at that exact moment where Jimmbob has become smarter. As I.Q. points are the agreed-upon measure of intelligence, and intelligence is a fancy word for smartness, ol' Jimmbob has, through grasping the fact that he had been taken advantage of, has dun made himself smarter.
Now lets say ol' Jimmbob has life insurance, and that those weren't sugar pills, but slow acting poison. There goes #1 and #4 right there. I'm not sure what rigormortis does to penis size, but hell, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
OK, I have to ask: what the heck are you guys doing with your email addresses that make you get 81 spam messages before noon? Publishing it on a billboard in Times Square?
It may not be exactly like putting his email address on a billboard in Times Square, but he does, you know, run slashdot. His address shows up a lot on these pages that are a good target for havesters and he does reach a large audiance, of whom a small percentange might be vindictive towards him, for whatever reason, and sign him up for all sorts of nasty stuff.
Stupid Cheap Guitars
If you have a US driver's license, you can get an international driver's license just by going to your nearest AAA office, filling out a form, and paying a small fee. You then get a little booklet you have to carry around with your regular license, which basically amounts to a bunch of pages that say "this is a driver's license" in several languages.