Slashdot Mirror
FTC vs Spammers
binaryDigit writes "The San Jose Mercury News has an article on the FTC getting ready to take action on an (alleged) spammer. 'The Federal Trade Commission said today that after receiving about 46,000 complaints it had asked a federal judge to halt the operation.' Too bad it took 46000 complaints to prompt some action, but at least some action is being taken. The FTC will focus on the "deception" involved (innocent and misleading subject lines, bogus (but real) from/reply to addresses, etc)."
This is the obligatory SPAM thread plug for bayesian filtering.
If you're not already doing it, give it a go in one of its many forms.
I've been using POPFile for ages and it works a treat.
Possibly uce@ftc.gov? That's the address I've been sending them to.
"Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
A slashdot article FTC Encourages Consumers to Forward Them Spam was posted on September 7, 2002 stating that the FTC wanted people to forward them spam at uce@ftc.gov.
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
Here's the actual FTC announcement...
Why do I h8 apple?
I think that the author means that the "From" address was a real, working email address. It just didn't happen to belong to the spammer. I believe this is called getting "Joe-Jobbed".
Au contraire..
...
FTC privacy regulations are being accused of being too hard to follow for website operators! Aren't Slashfolk for _more_ privacy?
FTC apparently is doing a pretty good job overall..
Excerpts from recent Wall Street Journal article:
(April 4th 2003 by John Wilke)
"Devout Reaganite Becomes
An Unlikely Enforcer at FTC"
"Indeed, of the few federal regulatory agencies that really matter, his stands out because it's functioning vigorously: The Federal Communications Commission is nearly paralyzed, with board members in open revolt against the chairman; Harvey Pitt went down in flames at the Securities and Exchange Commission; and the Justice Department antitrust chief, Charles James, resigned amid criticism that he was a reluctant enforcer who caved on the Microsoft Corp. case.
Mr. Muris, unexpectedly, has become an aggressive enforcer. He's filed lawsuits against drug makers for cutting cozy deals with rivals and moved to promote competition where it is lacking in the health-care business, by investigating hospital mergers and alleged price fixing by doctors' groups. He has clipped attorneys' fees in class-action cases and told lawyers they aren't needed to close real-estate transactions. He has scolded funeral directors for banning online casket sales and targeted state rules used to restrict the sale of wine on the Internet. He has forced Microsoft to drop plans to harvest consumer data from its software, and in antitrust -- despite predictions that he'd be a soft touch for business -- he has challenged mergers in markets from ice cream to pickles.
Mr. Muris's most visible public legacy may be a federal "do not call" system to protect Americans from telemarketers, which he pushed through despite resistance from his own party in Congress. The system could be in operation as soon as this summer, allowing consumers an easy way to shield themselves from dinnertime calls from telemarketers."
"Most votes on the agency's five-member board are now unanimous. "We're the only game in town right now, where government is actually looking out for consumers," says Mozelle Thompson, a Democratic commissioner and early Muris critic who is now an ally."
On dealing with spam:
"Mr. Muris dropped that tack and instead boosted law-enforcement resources by 50%, and began prosecuting more identity-theft and fraud cases. He targeted unwanted e-mail by filing charges against hundreds of deceptive spammers. And he delighted in showing visitors "the refrigerator," a large data-storage unit deep in the FTC's granite headquarters where the nastiest forms of spam are stored and studied by FTC sleuths.
Consumer advocates say the FTC hasn't gone far enough to stem the rising tide of junk e-mail. "We're disappointed they haven't done more," said James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, a Ralph Nader-affiliated nonprofit. He specifically criticizes Mr. Muris's decision not to seek new laws to restrict spammers."
WOAH.. the FTC commissioner wants to use existing laws instead of passing new fun filled blanket laws?
whois.networksolutions.com
Registrant:
Westby, Brian D. (PORNSEEKER2-DOM)
1752 S. 5th St.
SAINT CHARLES
MO,63303
US
Domain Name: PORNSEEKER.NET
Administrative Contact:
Westby, Brian (BW11618) bryanwestby@WORLDNET.ATT.NET
Westby, Brian D.
1752 S. 5th St.
SAINT CHARLES , MO 63303
3149161554
Technical Contact:
ValueWeb (HOS237-ORG) hostmaster@VALUEWEB.NET
ValueWeb
3250 West Commercial Blvd. #200
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309
US
954-334-8000 fax: 954-334-8001
Record expires on 24-Aug-2005.
Record created on 24-Aug-1999.
Database last updated on 4-Jan-2003 04:28:55 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.CALIFORNIA.NET 216.131.95.20
NS1.OAKWEB.COM 216.131.94.5
Feel free to make this guys life hell. I've received over 100 of his mortgage offers in the past two weeks and asking to be removed from his mailing list has done no good.
Here is the raw output for domain n0hastlem0rtgage.com:
Organization:
none
Mike Stone
12345 Stone rd
Stoneville, CA 92504
US
Phone: 916.123.4567
Email: vialead@yahoo.com
Amazingly enough, his yahoo account has already been terminated.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Bayesian WOULD help you.
The Bayes filter would decide that since it had a short subject line, it wasn't coming from someone you know (names on whitelist are always non-spam), and it contains IMG SRC but no other POSITIVE hits, it's would score VERY likely spam on a properly trained filter.
The only problem you may have is if your mother regularly sends you pictures of her dog with a subject line like Here.
HTML email by itself scores very high on probability for spam, because very few people besides spammers use it. Those people are generally vetted by their other content.
Never confuse volume with power.
Please call 888-340-9733 and ask about the special on Penis Enlargers or Boob Enhancers. He (Robert) has great offers ;
He also sells SPAMWARE as well. He will be happy to hear from inquiring customers ; >
Please check out
Info on Soloway
Please send Catalogs to:
Business Addr:
279 Granite St.
Ashland OR
Alleged Home Addr:
1547 Upland Place
Medford Or 97501
Remember, waste SPAMMER's time & money like they waste our's.