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My Short Life As An Unintentional Porn Spammer

Posted by timothy on from the you've-got-spam dept.

Freerange writes "Mike Masnick wrote up his experience getting slammed by a somewhat new kind of spam attack that doesn't get much hype (yet?). A spammer spoofed his personal email address as the 'reply-to' for a batch of spam, with interesting results for Mike: "I can now answer the questions 'who replies to spam?' and (should anyone ever wonder) 'what are the hundreds of variations on bounced messages?'" From Politech."

3 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. Reverse spam really isn't that new... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spammers have been spoofing legit addresses for a while. I know a lot of times they'll simply use webmaster@somelegitdomain.com and basically cause that person a bunch of grief and headaches. Most users are too clueless to realize it's really not coming from that address.

  2. Spam needs a technical solution. by Sheetrock · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This adds more weight to my assessment of spam as being a technical problem with a need for a technical solution. Why are address spoofing and open mail relays still a problem after over a decade of spam-related problems?

    Obviously, legislation isn't catching up and as evidenced by the junk fax law is useless when it does. Technical minds built the Internet, and I have little doubt that a solution could be found once we quit looking for the quick fix.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




  3. Everyone call your State Rep! by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I gave Testimony to the Missouri House of Reps on Jan. 29th.

    It's easy to get things in motion, everyone is too lazy to try though.

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin