Spammers Using Students as Relays

Zendar writes "idg has an article about how students at the 151-year-old Tufts University were paid as little as $20/month to relay spam from computers in their dorms. Interestingly enough, the students approached the spammers about this scheme and not vice-versa."

Comments

Tracked using MAC address

[monkey_tennis]

Interesting that they tracked the individuals down using MAC addresses for computers in their dorms...

I've never heard of any other Uni having the foresight to record this and it seems like a valid piece of info to have to include in any registration document (as per cable modem setup)

Re:Tracked using MAC address

[garcia]

I was compromised at one point in time my freshman year and had a smurf attack originate from my machine. They were able to track it down in under 2 hours to my specific port. They shut me down immediately. I had to contact the head of IT directly for reinstatement.

Although it was pretty obvious who was using the most bandwith even w/a tool like iptraf.

Students selling information

[brejc8]

I have been getting spam addressed to [my_unix_username]@[my_machinename].cs.man.ac.uk
My machine passes the mail to me but I have no idea how the people got this address.
The only way I can think of is if someone used finger @ on the machines in the department and then stuck the username with the machinename.
As far as I am aware the finger@ is blocked to people outside the department so I am starting to suspect that some students are behind this.
Especially as the spam is for local companies.