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In Pursuit Of A Spammer

Kyle writes "Over at DSL Reports, We are currently pursuing a spammer from the West Palm Beach, Florida area. This wouldn't normally be news, but we think Slashdot readers may be interested in just how successful we have been. What's more interesting is that the spammer appears to be posting in the thread."

108 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. How much in it for me... by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I bring you back his ears?

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  2. Did you know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It turns out, after I caught a spammer, I wasn't allowed to kill him. Apparently, that's not classified as justifiable homicide. You know how silly I feel now?

    1. Re:Did you know... by fidget42 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You need a license. Duck season, wabbit season, spammer season...

      --
      The dogcow says "Moof!"
    2. Re:Did you know... by sllim · · Score: 4, Funny

      However if he posses a risk to life or limb you have a case.
      That is why whenever you see a spammer you need to shout (so you can be heard clearly)
      "He's Coming Right For Us!"

      I recommend a bazooka. More bang for the buck.

    3. Re:Did you know... by blibbleblobble · · Score: 3, Funny

      "That is why whenever you see a spammer you need to shout (so you can be heard clearly)
      "He's Coming Right For Us!""


      How about "we have concrete evidence that he has weapons of mass destruction"?

  3. Worlds worst spammers busted! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We are currently pursuing a spammer from the West Palm Beach, Florida area."

    Will be see this on Fox?

    1. Re:Worlds worst spammers busted! by aeinome · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If we do, I hope it recounts the payback on Alan Ralsky, a fixature in /. lore.

      --
      When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
  4. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by Audent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And I've said it before, you're free to do what you wish so long as it doesn't impact on me or my freedoms.
    Spam costs me money. Every time I open an email I don't want, every time I have to update my anti-spam software (well, that's free but that's besides the point) it costs me time and money and I object. It's fine if I've signed up for a newsletter or advertising (yes, I've done that - Think Geek sends me notification of stuff even though I'm a dirty foreigner and can't buy any of it) but when I haven't it's costing me. Where can I send the invoice? To you?

    --
    I am a leaf on the wind
  5. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They're using my bandwidth and my resources with my approval. In most cases, they're also using someone's server without their approval and forging various information. If they were honest about who they were, and what they were selling, I'd have a lot less of a problem with it. Instead, they try to use subjects and senders to trick you into reading it and wasting your time.

  6. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by BlueTrin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well in some countries, spamming is clearly forbidden.

    --
    Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
  7. Hanging chad spammer by dmeranda · · Score: 5, Funny
    We are currently pursuing a spammer from the West Palm Beach, Florida area. This wouldn't normally be news,...

    Pursuit of fleeing vehicles is much more common in LA, but the West Palm Beach folks are very fond of pursuing rental trucks full of votes to be recounted. So now they are just chasing a truck load of canned pork, doesn't really surprise me much.

    1. Re:Hanging chad spammer by 56ker · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm sure someone's writing a blockbusting film using this plot as we speak. ;o)

      A West Palm Beach county resident - annoyed that his vote for Gore in the presidential election wasn't counted - decided to get back at the world by being the most notorious, infamous spammer in West Palm Beach county....... pursued by people all over the world.....

  8. A spammer a spammer! by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've found a spammer, may we burn him?

    --
    If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
    1. Re:A spammer a spammer! by jokell82 · · Score: 3, Funny

      But how do you know he's a spammer?

      Well he turned me into a newt! ...... I got better...

      --
      I dunno who it is
      but it prolly is fhqwhgads.
    2. Re:A spammer a spammer! by Jardine · · Score: 4, Funny

      Only if he weighs the same as a wooden duck.

    3. Re:A spammer a spammer! by greg987123 · · Score: 5, Funny

      DSL REPORTS:
      Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether he is a spammer.
      SLASHDOTTER #1: Are there?
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Ah?
      SLASHDOTTER #1: What are they?
      CROWD: Tell us! Tell us!...
      DSL REPORTS: Tell me. What do you do with spammers?
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Burn!
      SLASHDOTTER #1: Burn!
      CROWD: Burn! Burn them up! Burn!...
      DSL REPORTS : And what do you burn apart from spammers?
      SLASHDOTTER #1: More spammers!
      SLASHDOTTER #3: Shh!
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Wood!
      DSL REPORTS : So, why are spammers caught?
      [pause]
      SLASHDOTTER #3: B--... 'cause they send... unwanted email?
      DSL REPORTS : Good! Heh heh.
      CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh.
      DSL REPORTS : So, how do we tell whether he sends unwanted email?
      SLASHDOTTER #1:
      Run him thorugh a Bayesian filter.
      DSL REPORTS : Ah, but can you not also catch valid email in a Bayesian filter?
      SLASHDOTTER #1: Oh, yeah.
      TROLL:
      Oh, yeah. True. Uhh...
      DSL REPORTS :
      Does spam sink in water?
      SLASHDOTTER #1: No. No.
      SLASHDOTTER #2: No, it floats! It floats!
      SLASHDOTTER #1:
      Throw the email into the pond!
      CROWD:
      The pond! Throw it into the pond!
      DSL REPORTS : What also floats in water?
      SLASHDOTTER #1: Bread!
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Apples!
      SLASHDOTTER #3: Uh, very small rocks!
      SLASHDOTTER #1:
      Cider!
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Uh, gra-- gravy!
      SLASHDOTTER #1: Cherries!
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Mud!
      SLASHDOTTER #3: Uh, churches! Churches!
      SLASHDOTTER #2: Lead! Lead!
      CMDR TACO: A duck!
      CROWD: Oooh.
      DSL REPORTS : Exactly. So, logically...
      SLASHDOTTER #1:
      If... it... weighs... the same as a duck,... it's made of spam.
      DSL REPORTS : And therefore?
      SLASHDOTTER #2: A spammer!

    4. Re:A spammer a spammer! by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 5, Funny
      But how do you know he's a spammer?

      He made my penis 6 feet long! (god, was my girlfriend pissed!) I might have been OK, if I'd only bought one.

      --
      Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
    5. Re:A spammer a spammer! by Dr.+Photo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hmm... Monty Python... Spam... Monty Python... Spam...

      Spam... Spam... Spam... Spam...

      Nope, doesn't ring a bell.

    6. Re:A spammer a spammer! by bigsteve@dstc · · Score: 3, Funny
      If I had a spammer,
      I'd burn him in the morning.
      I'd burn him in the evening,
      all over this land.
      ...
      (Call me old ... see if I care :-)
    7. Re:A spammer a spammer! by MourningBlade · · Score: 5, Funny

      He made my penis 6 feet long! (god, was my girlfriend pissed!)

      Ok, you had me going until the "girlfriend" bit.

  9. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    t's their right to send it and it's your right to block it.

    Sorry, that theory fails when fraud comes into the equation. Rule #1: Spammers LIE.
    Lying, in this context (trying to steal your service), is fraud.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  10. You've been wrong before and your wrong again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Who has the right to send a scam to people? I don't think scams are protected under the first amendment and I don't think advertsing should be either. Certainly the framers never considered advertising as political dissent in need of protection. So why do you?

    1. Re:You've been wrong before and your wrong again by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 2, Informative

      First, I am not a lawyer. Nor do I play one on TV.

      I don't think advertsing should be either. Certainly the framers never considered advertising as political dissent in need of protection.

      But protected speech is not necessarily just about dissent, but also about social value. To just pop an example of commercial speech that could also have social value ( depending on your social values, I guess ) from Google: Bigelow vs Virginia (1975), which held that advertising the availability of legal, out of state abortions was considered protected.

      Now, back in the day, commercial speech didn't derive any first amendment protection - now it has limited protection, under something called the Central Hudson test. This is a four pronged test that provides guidelines as to where the government can restrict commercial speech, and you can read more about it at abuse.net ( great article ).

      The meat of Hudson is in the first prong, which basically rejects the protection of misleading speech. See the above posters' comments about fraud. The other prongs alow the government to interdict if it has substantial interest in the area under discussion.

      Astoundingly, much of this transition from non-protected to limited protection can be laid at the feet of consumers, who brought suit to protect their right to receive factual information ( Virginia State Board of Pharmacy vs Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976) ).

      --
      One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
  11. cool by squarefish · · Score: 5, Interesting

    he has an email newsletter. Let's all sign up!

    --
    Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
    1. Re:cool by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 4, Funny
      who is Chad Deckard?

      Chad is also a business savant who has studied and solved every kind of business question, problem, and challenge that has encroached him over his business career.

      It will be interesting to see how well he copes with this problem.

    2. Re:cool by SoSueMe · · Score: 2, Funny

      How about using these names to fill in the form:

      Antispamcard.com

      Name & Address Title
      DECKARD, CHAD
      1300 N FLORIDA MANGO ROAD, #18

      or

      Name & Address
      HECKMAN, BRADLEY D
      1701 NORTH FLAGLER DRIVE
      SUITE 321
      WEST PALM BEACH FL 33407

      or

      WEST PALM BEACH FL 33414 P
      HALL, JAMIE
      323 4TH AVE, NORTH

      or

      KENORA, ONTARIO P9N -3H7 V
      EATON, TIFFANY
      1343 LAKE GENEVA DR.
      LAKE WORTH FL 33461

    3. Re:cool by Malicious · · Score: 4, Funny

      I signed up 30 Times!
      Root@127.0.0.1
      Admin@127.0.0.1
      Chad@127.0.0.1
      Etc..etc..etc.....

      --
      01101001001000000110000101101101001000000110001001 10000101110100011011010110000101101110
  12. Am I the only one ... by BabyDave · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... who's got a mental picture involving a Benny Hill style chase sequence?

    1. Re:Am I the only one ... by DeborahArielPickett · · Score: 2, Funny
      Am I the only one [...] who's got a mental picture involving a Benny Hill style chase sequence?

      Not any more. Thanks a bundle.

      <cue chase music in brain, set to infinite repeat>

  13. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by SpiffyMarc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does junk mail sent to your work or residential address through the standard postal service fall under this as well?

    I receive more then my fair share of junk through the USPS, and I certainly can't put a strainer over my mailbox to filter any out.

    How is this different?

  14. What do they expect to happen? by zpiderz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This person spammed a forum which is wrong, but what do they really expect to happen this company? Do they want their domain revoked, a reprimand, a fine? Do they have proof that they spam on a massive scale or send massive bulk e-mails. It's one thing to send 1,000 e-mails a day and another to post an ad in a forum (on the same subject for that matter).

    1. Re:What do they expect to happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      As always, its wise to read the material before commenting. Usenet has several examples of spam that was sent on 6/22/03 whoring antispamcard.com. In addition, they are selling another company's software without permission.

    2. Re:What do they expect to happen? by Kibo · · Score: 2, Funny

      "The Chad" claims to be a "business savant." On his chaddeckard.com site. It's got to be idiot savant because part of his business sense had him trolling p2p forum as part of his master plan. If I want blood, I don't turn to stones, and if I want money, I'm not turning to people who make a habbit of not paying for stuff. I'll leave that business to the check cashing places and repo-men.

      --
      --Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
  15. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by ejaw5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What really bothers me about spam is that they have to be so cowardly about it and spoof source email addresses like kajfaiojiu@iouem.com. I wouldn't mind it if they were honest about where they're sending SPAM from, then I can easily excercise my right to block it.

    --

    $cat /dev/random > Sig
  16. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by Audent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, sadly every time I go online it costs me money. Telecom NZ sells its badwidth dearly - 20 cents/MB when I exceed my limit (each month I get a whopping 1000MB to play with to my heart's content. Weehee!). It's not much but as the number of spam I get increases so do my costs. Directly. I'm not billing for my time to open them all, my electricity to power the PC or any other stuff.
    It's not just spam, it's any unsolicited use of my bandwidth - and yes, viruses should be included too.

    --
    I am a leaf on the wind
  17. Besides... by BJZQ8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Besides annoying the spammer in question, is there REALLY anything they can legally do to him? I doubt it. I have fought with spammers before, trying to get taken off of their lists, and they threatened ME with telling my ISP (a college at that time) that I was harassing HIM. I believe he would have done it, too. So I resigned myself to deleting hundreds of spams per week, and getting used to it. I can't wait until they make RIAA-style computer-nuking legal...we can all just start a computerized World War III.

    1. Re:Besides... by ave19 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I registered a domain name with a service that provides email forwarding. (registersite.com)

      then, i created an email address (spam0) and use that for all my risky behavior. :) when it got too much spam, i deleted it, and created a new one (spam1)... lather, rinse, repeat.

      also handy side effect, when i change isp, i just update my forwarding address. i have a nice permanent email for myself.

      works good!

      -ave

      --
      ...or maybe not.
  18. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by jchawk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not to nit pick,but...

    Most big time spammers go right around the "TOS" by becoming an ISP themselves. All you have to do is buy a block of IP's from someone who has them up for sale. Believe me there are plenty of people who will sell you a /20 for a $4000 to $10,000, because they are going out of business.

    Next all you need to do is find a bandwidth provider and you're in business. Most bandwidth providers don't care what you do with your bandwidth as long as it's not illegal. And there isn't a lot of solid case law that spam is illegal. (I know we're all hoping for legislation to come through, but not yet...)

    And there you go, no "Terms of Service" to break.

    I hate spammers as much as the rest of you, but I really hate zeolots who have no idea how the business even works. The more you know about spammers the easier it will be to combat them.

    Maybe I'm just jaded because most of my day is spent blocking this low-lifes.

  19. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by Audent · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here in New Zealand you'll often see mailboxes with "no junk mail" stickers on them. When I worked in retail years ago we made sure our junkmail delivery company avoided stuffing those boxes - it's just not worth the damage to your brand name to upset them.

    --
    I am a leaf on the wind
  20. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the USPS does not charge you for each letter it puts in your mailbox.

    --
    If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
  21. Re:Good job! by stevenbdjr · · Score: 3, Informative

    DSL / Broadband reports is not a DSL provider. They are a website devoted to issues surrounding broadband Internet access. While I fail to see any real useful information in the post (or the thread), I also fail to see how this is advertisting. Their site doesn't even contain ads.

  22. Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As you may have seen, antispamcard.com recently spammed our forum.

    They posted 2 messages to your forum. Is that what this whole story is about?

    1. Re:Am I missing something? by Kylow · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, you are. After the messages, we determined they've been sending spam. In the thread are linked a few examples of the spam they sent on 6/22/03. Searching groups.google.com, several pieces of spam can be found from both Heckman and Deckard.

    2. Re:Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      1: It's a spammer that spammed. That's grounds for loss of a connection to the Internet, at the very least.

      2: It's an unrepentant spammer. That is grounds for permanent disconnection. Find out as much as possible about them and do what is necessary to insure that they are never able to connect to any ISP ever again. Unrepentant repeat criminals are removed from society, and unrepentant repeat spammers should be removed from the Internet.

      3: It's an unrepentant spammer sending spam about some kind of service to fight spam... I don't even know where to begin on that one.

      4: It's a story about how a slimeball spammer is being tracked down and is obviously nervous about it. It's a how-to. It's a recipe. It's inspirational. It is very much Stuff That Matters.

  23. Awesome!! by someonehasmyname · · Score: 5, Funny

    I live in West Palm Beach! I might try bribing his garbage man to dump a truckload of junk in his yard.

    --
    Common sense is not so common.
    1. Re:Awesome!! by mcgroarty · · Score: 4, Funny
      Well, you can legally do the opposite and pick up his garbage and have a look-see through it.

      It could be fun to share his private life with the world.

    2. Re:Awesome!! by Derg · · Score: 4, Funny

      i've found that 2 cases of whatever beer of choice of the garbage man goes quite a long way. nothing like 3 trucks worth of trash on the front yard of your cheating ex to help calm that broken heart..

      --
      I'm a little tea pot.
    3. Re:Awesome!! by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 3, Interesting
      " Well, you can legally do the opposite and pick up his garbage and have a look-see through it. It could be fun to share his private life with the world."

      Finally! A REAL use for image blogging. Screw getting him tons of junk mail. Lets make his private life as public as we can. Take pictures etc, and do press releases to all the big websites. CNN, MSNBC, etc. Lets see what happens when a lot of people, who may or may not be as technically sophisticated as the slashdot crowd....but suddenly know a lot about this guy, decide to do once they have easy access to his personal life.

      --
      Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  24. How is this successful? by BillYak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All they have done so far is make a lot of links from one site/organization to another. There has been no action against the spammer. They are not certain of his real name nor his address. I think its great that they're tracking him down, but I would not go so far as to say they have been successful.

    1. Re:How is this successful? by Kylow · · Score: 3, Informative

      Thusly, the title of the article is In Pursuit of a Spammer. One company has already stated that legal action may be pending. We've only just begun.

  25. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by analog_line · · Score: 4, Informative

    Call up your local post office and tell them you want to refuse all fourth class mail.

    That will get rid of the majority of your postal problem.

  26. Re:What??? by Kylow · · Score: 2, Informative

    This particular spammer is selling another company's software without permission.

  27. 9 pages? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can someone with a bigger attention span provide a summary?

    1. Re:9 pages? by Klimaxor · · Score: 4, Funny

      an anti-spam forum got spammed by a guy trying to sell anti-spam software, and after doing a lot of inquiries to several whois databases, determined that the anti-spam spam was really spam spam.
      make any sense?

      --
      your sins into me, oh my beautiful one.
    2. Re:9 pages? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Someone sent a couple of spam messages to a forum. Apparently they picked the wrong forum because now the whole rat-pack is trying to track down the sender.

      Using google, who-is databases, other directories, some luck and some pluck they have unearthed all details of that guy (Name, address, phone number, company he works for, color of his underwear and so on).

      Being a rather slow day on Slashdot, it makes it as one of the stories of the day.

    3. Re:9 pages? by Kylow · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thanks for the vote of confidence!

    4. Re:9 pages? by peter_gzowski · · Score: 5, Informative

      Summary:

      Dslreports maintains an anti-spam forum, which discusses spam-fighting techniques. A recently registered user, AntiSpamCard, posts to the forum advertising its spam-fighting product, AntiSpamCard. This violates the rules of the forum, so another user, AmeritechTech, looks up the domain registration information (registration service: RegistryFly.com). It is full of false information (mostly na, na, na filled in everywhere). AntiSpamCard claims that false info is RegistryFly's fault. Further investigation leads AmeritechTech to believe AntiSpamCard are, in fact, spammers. The evidence:

      - Privacy statement on antispamcard.com states that they have an opt-out policy on receiving info
      - Domain listed as unwelcome here and here

      From these sites, AmeritechTech discovers that antispamcard.com and putamericatowork.com are both owned by Brad Heckman in Palm Beach, FL. IP address for antispamcard.com seems to be within a block assigned to Crescive, Inc. (not to be confused with some car company), which is also mentioned on antispamcard.com. The host for this block of IPs is traci.net. Traci.net has a strict anti-spam policy. Name servers also appear to be owned by Brad, and hosted by traci.net. Registration of the domain names of the name servers also has na, na, na filled into most fields. Putamericatowork.com turns out to be hosted by aitcom.net, which has a very strict anti-spam policy. AmeritechTech also claims Brad owns spaminsurance.com, but I'm not sure why. IP in the same block (which it is) and identical layouts (can't check, antispamcard.com /.'ed), I think.

      After various emails to the various hosting companies, antispamcard.com and spaminsurance.com magically have valid registration information. AmeritechTech also gets an email from Brad from igpbrad@hotmail.com (remember that email) saying the registration info is updated. Antispamcard.com registered to Brad, spaminsurance.com registered to Chad Deckard. Same guy? Associates? Who knows, but there seems to be a link (in later posts, this is contested by "mystery poster" Ry2k, but the link seems pretty strong). Hunting around for Chad Deckard stuff turns up claims on this board that he's associated with a scam to sell Kazaa "Gold", which is really just Kazaa Lite, but with a 9.95 price tag, plus it harvests your email. The site's still up, but I couldn't repeat the behaviour claimed by the message poster (posted back on Sept. 11, 2002) that takes you to infogeneratorpro.com, which seems to be the site registered to Chad. Also conspicuous is that Chad's name shows up on putamericatowork.com, a site owned by Brad (link). Also VERY conspicuous is that Brad emailed from igpbrad@hotmail.com, i.e. InfoGeneratorPro? Maybe a coincidence...

      Some more looking uncovers other domains in Chad's name: infogenerator.com, usub.net, and finder-network.com. This is along with spaminsurance.com and infogeneratorpro.com. About this time Ry2k shows up to claim that Kazaa Gold was just a client of Chad's, and when Chad found out what they were doing, the account was eliminated. Ry2k claims to be a former employee of Chad's, and warns the forum of tarnishing the good name of legitimate businesses in their persuit of spammers. I go to bullet mode, as it's getting late, and I'm tired:

      - Reverse look-ups on contact info for antispamcard.com produce a fax number registered to infogenerator.com.
      - Domain name servers (safeidentity.net) for antispamcard.com has contact info updated to Crescive, Inc.
      - Someone points out that RegisarFly.com may be shady, something about "using CNAME for their MX records". Maybe someone can fill me in...
      - google groups turns up complaints about spam from

      --
      "Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
    5. Re:9 pages? by Michael+Hunt · · Score: 3, Informative

      Using a CNAME for an MX record is generally frowned upon, since it may not point at a valid A record, or, in fact, an A record it all. CNAMEs can point at any sort of data.

      The recommended way to delegate reverse DNS for blocks smaller than /24 is to CNAME the .in-addr.arpa entries to a zone under the control of the people who have the small allocation, for example.

  28. The Spammer is in big trouble by fugu13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Notably, the most fervent researcher on the forum (Ameritec Tech) has discovered that the spammer was violating several people's copyrights. One of those people has replied and stated they are taking legal action against the spammer immediately for the violation.

    --
    For to end yet again.
  29. Big Deal by fm6 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So a particularly stupid spammer spams a forum frequented by technically clueful spam haters. After much effort, these guys might make life difficult for this particular spammer. At best this will result in a reduction of spam that's too small to measure. So why should anybody care?

    1. Re:Big Deal by PaulK · · Score: 4, Insightful

      At best this will result in a reduction of spam that's too small to measure.

      It only takes one snowflake to start an avalanche.

      Visualize this:

      One man decides he has had enough, and pursues this spammer with all the tools at his disposal, including posting an article on Slashdot. Now, consider that the vast majority of /.'rs have also had enough, and quite a few decide that this is a good method of pulling the bugs out from under the rocks.

      At this point, the grassroot movement starts, and the spammers start scrambling for other rocks. As momentum grows, the word about this methodology reaches more and more people, who likewise have had enough. Eventually, by starting with this one snowflake, spam can become an abberation, instead of the norm.

      So why should anybody care?

      Because there is hope, and apathy/acceptance gives them the victory. I'd rather take them out of the game, myself.

    2. Re:Big Deal by PaulK · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I understand your point, but do not concede that it is inevitible.

      The concept of a vigilante mob, does not dovetail with an organized House UnNetizen Activites Committee, btw.

      In this case, it appears that we may have found a tool that works to fix one particular problem. If so, I see no reason to cease employing it.

      Blacklisting is ineffective; there are more open relays springing up every day than can be kept up with. Even so, with the concept of blacklists, the bandwidth is still wasted. A better solution is required, further up the chain.

      Remember, this started on an anti-spam list. There is no other purpose for the existence of this list. When the problem goes away, so does the list.

      There are, and always will be, other projects, (or windmills to tilt, if you prefer :) ), for which technical prowess is required. That does not indicate an escalation of power or abuse thereof, but merely a linear approach to solving problems.

    3. Re:Big Deal by Kylow · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't want to be hunted down like a dog? Don't spam my anti-spam forum. If this was in my inbox, I would have reported it to Spam Cop and moved on...I don't have time to pursue every spammer. This guy is brazen enough to come into an anti-spam forum (and a fairly savvy one, at that) and advertise his BS product, one which I might add, that does not even belong to him.

      The spammers should delight in the fact that the angry mobs of today don't string people up, but rather, simply report them to the authorities.

      Regarding the snowballing of this, I doubt anything like that will happen. I and others have worked to carefully limit the scope of the thread, calling a dead end a dead end.

      Ameritech Tech

    4. Re:Big Deal by PaulK · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You underestimate yourself, sir.

      I, for one, am highly motivated by your example.

      Thank you!

  30. Wanna see something funny because its so stupid? by inode_buddha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've noticed a few "diplomats" grubbing for money recently on the kernel mailing list. Nigerian vacations, anyone? Oddly, each sender/IP occurs only *once*, it seems. Even more oddly, no mention of "Free Speech" (or any other policy) is made. It seems that "Free STFU" goes hand-in hand with "Free Speech", for practical purposes.

    As opposed to legal ones.

    --
    C|N>K
  31. 1 Down, Thousands to Go by l810c · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Additionally, if it takes this much work to Kinda Get one guy, how are we ever going to get them all? Will the threat of isolated harassment stop most of these spammers, I doubt it.

    Don't get me wrong, I still applaud these guys efforts, but it's an steep uphill battle.

    1. Re:1 Down, Thousands to Go by pleekmo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The name of the game is to make it too expensive to be a spammer. If the spammer is too busy fending off people trying to track him/her/it down and shut him/her/it off, then he/she/it is too busy to spam. Only when spamming is no longer economical will it be eliminated.

  32. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by mdwh2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you using metered bandwidth? How much per kilobyte do you pay?

    Even on unmetered bandwidth, due you think that the ISP will soak up additional costs by cutting their salaries/profits? Chances are they will pass the increased costs onto the customer. And certainly, it won't be the spammer who pays.

  33. Re:What??? by mattite · · Score: 2, Informative

    Certainly there is freedom of speech. But commercial speech does not enjoy the same freedom as private or political. There are limitations on all forms, but commercial is the most limited by far.

  34. Re:What??? by clifyt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, but free speech is also somewhat limited. For instance, commercial speech can be regulated. Spam for the most part is commercial speech and thus should be put under the same regulations as any other advertisment.

    That and freedom of speech is not something that is regulated by the gov't in someone elses home. It is limited to public properties. On private properties, you still have what ever limits of the freedom of speech that apply as well as those of the folks that regulate the private area.

    By these two limits, email can and should be regulated. Much the same way one can place a .Robots file on their website or subscribe to a DoNotCall List, email is an invitation to ones home and the decision to allow it into your home should be yours to make and the gov't should be able to help one regulate this. If you are paying for something and others are invading its sancitity, you should be able to ask the gov't to help you out. If folks are not willing to respect this privacy before you have to say back off, the gov't should give you the ability to tell these guys to fuck off before they even get there.

    Again, freedom of speech is not an unlimited freedom. I'm sick of folks that think if it. If Taco wanted to edit my posts here on his site, its NOT infringing against my freedom of speech to do so...at least from a constitutional stand point.

    blah

  35. Re:What??? by schon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The First Amendment has been interpreted by the US courts to me the protection of personal expression. .. E-mail could be considered to be therefore protected.

    While the text of an email can be considered "speech", it's irrelevant - it can still (and should) be regulated, as the first amendment only guarantees that you have the right to speech, it doesn't guarantee that you have the right to any and every method of expressing that speech - especially when it's the receiver, or some other third party, which is paying for it.

    Think about it - should you be able to walk into a TV station and demand to be given airtime to talk about your "100% natural penis enhancment" product? Of course not! Why should email be any different?

    The first amendment gives you the right to say what you want. It does NOT guarantee you the right to force people to listen, nor the right to force someone else to pay for your speech.

  36. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by analog_line · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, if UCE costs you money, you need to either work on making the practice illegal (which I don't care one way or the other about) or failing that, decide whether the financial cost you bring upon yourself by using the international e-mail system is worth the benefits you recieve from it.

    It is NOT theft of service for you to recieve an e-mail you didn't request. It is a symptom of the system working exactly as originally designed. The e-mail system has the automatic and unquestioned acceptance of all messaging as it's fatal flaw. It is part of the deal. It's what allows you to send e-mail to your long lost friend that didn't know your e-mail address, or to e-mail some customer support service at Amazon or what not, or e-mail your family to let them know you're OK after surviving the Twin Towers disaster, or whatever. That's what it was designed to do. It has strengths and glaring weaknesses, and when you participate in the system, you are willingly putting yourself at the mercy those weaknesses. If someone sends you a truckload of stuff you don't want through your e-mail service, and you pay by the byte for downloading it, your service is no more being stolen than a zillion people hitting a website where they pay by the byte for traffic, because the service is functioning the way it was designed. If you couldn't afford all that, you shouldn't have signed up for a per-byte Internet service. If you want to avoid the pitfalls of e-mail you need to find or make yourself a service that doesn't have this particular fatal flaw. That, or keep working to make the practice illegal wherever you are, which patches a technical hole with a legal or political tub of spackle. However, unless they invade another person's equipment to send the UCE to you, they aren't committing any kind of crime by doing it, at least in the USA. And even if they do that, you aren't the one who's having the crime committed against them, unless it was your machine they used as the relay.

    Here's a decent example...

    I don't have cable television service because I have decided that I hate the flood of ads and other comercial idiocy far more than what I would use it for is worth. I could have rigged up a TIVO or ReplayTV or some other one of the myriad solutions out there for removing ads, if I wanted to, but I decided the hassle wasn't worth the cost. Just because I don't want the ads there, doesn't mean I have a leg to stand on demanding that they not be there. I can take measures to remove them or avoid them, and any cost I incur because of those measures is COMPLETELY MY FAULT. Same with UCE. If I don't like it, I either run a spam blocker of some ilk, take great pains to never give out my e-mail address to someone I don't trust completely with it, learn to deal with it, or chuck e-mail entirely. If I decide to do any of those things, I've only myself to blame for the inconvenience/cost associated with them, because it isn't theft for spammers to use the service the way it was designed.

    So basically, you can send the invoice to whomever you damn well please, and it'll probably get deleted, ignored, or cause someone to bust a blood vessel at the gall of some idiot on the Internet who thinks he can send bills to whomever he thinks deserves to pay for his problems.

  37. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by secolactico · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most big time spammers go right around the "TOS" by becoming an ISP themselves.

    Yes, but, unless they are becoming a tier 1 provider, they have to use an upstream provider, who probably have a TOS themselves, so no dice.

    Believe me there are plenty of people who will sell you a /20 for a $4000 to $10,000, because they are going out of business.

    Well, as far as I know, you can't sell your ip blocks. You have to return it to the relevant provider/registry for re-assignement. Of course, just because they shouldn't doesn't mean they don't, but it's another point against them if it comes to litigation.

    --
    No sig
  38. Re:Whats worse than constantly reading about SPAM by Tancred · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whats worse? Constantly reading about SPAM prevention or receiving it ?

    Duh. Receiving spam. You chose to go to Slashdot, read the article and post in its forum.

  39. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by kien · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Bill,

    It's unfortunate that your comments were modded down to -1. Given the opportunity, I would have modded your statements Interesting even though I disagree with you.

    It's their right to send it and it's your right to block it.

    This really drills down to the core issue of spam: money. Based upon what I've read on the subject, I (via my subscription fee) am subsidizing the cost of a spammer's business. I welcome any evidence that contradicts this, but until that time I would analogize your statement as follows: "It is their right to barge into your home and shove an ad in your face and it's your right to stop them....and by the way, this process will cost you $$."

    That kind of thinking doesn't work because I can't legally put a bullet into a spammer's head. One's right to free speech ends at my doorstep. Any alternative interpretation of the First Amendment opens up a number of conflicts with the Fourth Amendment.

    --K.
    --
    Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
  40. so if the spammer by curtlewis · · Score: 5, Funny

    So if the spammer weighs as much as a duck....

    then he's made of wood?

    and therefore?

    A WITCH!

    BURN HIM! BURN HIM!

  41. Re:heh by Klimaxor · · Score: 2, Funny

    sure as hell beats the Department of Justice

    --
    your sins into me, oh my beautiful one.
  42. the best revenge by linuxislandsucks · · Score: 4, Funny

    THe best revenge is a weblog post with his own info being higher in ranking than his own website :)

    I should know I killed a spammer called Bruce Cullen(a movie extra-Outbreak one of the invefected victims that died in the movie) with this technique..

    It was so bad that he stopped spamming altogether..:)

    --
    Don't Tread on OpenSource
  43. Nice to see the effort being taken. by qtp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now you have the IPs, the URLs, the company names, etc.

    So report these to every blackhole list available, report the hijacked material on the sites to the original publishers, check his providers for more spammers like him, and report the provider if necessary (so they start taking an active part in this as well) and get on to the next guy.

    If ISPs began taking basic measures to block spam, refuse services to spammers, contact the providers of spammers, and blackhole domains, IP's, and networks that spam or encourage spammers, the spammers would eventually end up in a spammers ghetto of unscrupulous providers that could be easily blocked or filtered.

    If it is left up to law enforcement and legislation, there will be loopholes as there are in the National Do-Not-Call Registry, and we will have opened up the door to congess regulating the use of email.

    --
    Read, L
  44. It is GOOD.... by sogoodsofarsowhat · · Score: 2, Funny

    too see /. able to offer a little assistance to the anti-spammer world. The /. effect removing weak servers from the WEB one at a time...

    --
    . I love the sound of burning women and screaming rubber....
  45. Great quote from the spammer's web site by bwass24 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Chad has seen and dealt with all types of mass media, entertainment, publishing, high-tech, and marketing companies like BBDO(Top 6 ad agency), to Turner Broadcasting Networks(CNN, TBS, Headline News, etc.) as well as Disney and Time Warner Media to name a few..."

    Hmmm...Well, I too have "seen and dealt with" BBDO (yes, I have seen their ads), Turner (I frequently watch CNN), Disney (sure I've seen that mouse and have bought stuff for my nieces at one of their stores), and Time Warner Media (I seen to recall that they have some sort of relationship with the aforementioned Turner...but I could be wrong

  46. This works better by efedora · · Score: 2, Informative

    Take a look at http://www.spamgourmet.com.
    You can make up email addresses on the fly and limit the number of replies to any quantity you like. When the number is exceeded the email is eaten.

  47. Re:Look at the posting dates by SoSueMe · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... and you would be smoking, what?

  48. Need some assistance from you Slashdot geniuses... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...having served in the military for a significant period of time, when I saw the 'patriotic business statement' by Heckman I did a 'quick and dirty' search of some databases -no listing of a Brad or Bradley Heckman deployed as member of the U.S. Army during Operation Desert Shield or Desert Storm. Someone tell the #1 spam hunter at DSL report webpage to try and get a unit ID from Heckman? For some reason I can't post to that forum and I couldn't find an email address for the #1 spam hunter guy. The best way to sink a fraudulent business that preys on patriotic people is to show them he's a fraud.

    "Just an idea".

    -Anonymous Cowardly Good Guy

  49. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by jonadab · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > Every time a neophyte friend or relative forwards a virus warning
    > hoax to you, it costs you time and money, should that be illegal
    > too?

    In a word? Yes. That would be an unsolicited chain forward, i.e.,
    a message that had already been forwarded to the forwarder and was
    now, without request of the recipient, being forwarded again. There
    is no valid reason ever to do that.

    However, the reversed-charges argument for making spam illegal is,
    as far as I'm concerned, the icing on the cake. The really strong
    reasons why it should be illegal have to do with fraud and
    harrassment.

    Vanishingly close to 100% of spam is fraudulent, at least in terms
    of forging headers. (Fraudulent content in the body is quite
    common as well, but it's the headers primarily that concern me.)
    Even if only non-fraudulent spam were legal, that would be a
    tremendous improvement. Since the spammers would have to register
    a fresh domain name in order to force me to update my filters, it
    would not be ecconomically feasible to do that for each and every
    message. I could prewash the spam out with a blacklist, saving
    lots of CPU cycles for my bayesian classification system.

    Now, the harrassment argument, which IMO is the truly rock-solid
    one: if I got anything like anywhere near approaching close to
    as many unsolicited phone calls per day from the same outfit,
    and if they behaved in the same fashion (refused to identify
    themselves, refused to stop contacting me), law enforcement
    would be all over the case, and if they could track down the
    people responsible, they would go to jail. That the contact
    is by email rather than phone shouldn't matter: these creeps
    should go to jail. There's one particular spamhaus in Asia
    that I would pay good money to know who they are and be able
    to shut them down, because they just won't leave me alone. I'm
    tired of getting seventy messages a day from these cretins.

    --
    Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  50. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by JamieF · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cool! Can I come to your house and exercise my right to kick you in the nuts? Of course, you have the right to block it.

    How do you feel about the hundreds of internet worms and script kiddies and failed spam relay attempts that are interfering with the bandwidth you pay for? Is that OK too? Mind if I run an extension cord to the outlet on your patio so I don't have to pay for my own electricity? Of course, you have to right to unplug it, but I'll just come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. And I'll tunnel under your house and tap into the wiring in your basement where you don't see. But you have the right to spend every waking hour trying to stop me from leeching off the stuff you pay for. I hope you don't waste too much time fighting me, though... I need you to go to work and earn money to pay for the stuff that I'm stealing from you, so that I don't have to go to work myself and earn an honest living. Wow, I love your attitude! Maybe I can hook myself up to your water and gas lines, too.

    There's cyber-libertarianism, and then there's advocating total lawlessness. When everybody has a "right" to do whatever they want to anybody, that's the same as nobody having any rights at all.

  51. Effective Anti-Spam Tactics? by MisterMook · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think we should just do a Slashdot story linking to Spammer websites every couple of days, the DoS attack should be brutal.

  52. More than "a little"... by Kibo · · Score: 2, Informative
    Slashdot made him cry.

    In his comment he claims to be the victim of a DoS attack. Pleading,

    "IT SEEMS THAT SOMEONE HAS BEEN DIPPING THEIR HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR! BEHOLD THE MASK HAS BEEN REVEALED!

    Do DoS Attacks equal SPAM??"/blockquote)

    In next weeks episode will he accuse Ameritech of having the "keys" to the internet? Stay tuned.
    --
    --Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
  53. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by Jade+E.+2 · · Score: 5, Funny
    What really bothers me about spam is that they have to be so cowardly about it and spoof source email addresses like kajfaiojiu@iouem.com.

    On behalf of my good friend Kaj Faiojiu, webmaster of iouem.com, I'd like to ask you not to post his email address in public.

    Thanks.

  54. Why don't we by FatherBash · · Score: 2, Interesting
    just do what we did here

    worked like a charm last time.

  55. Is this about TWO messages? by Jboy_24 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Please tell me the "SPAMMER" did more then post 2 messages in an forum which actually shares the same topic as his posts?

    Or is it just enough that someone labeled him a "Spammer" that we have to "dump garbage on his lawn"?

    Was it just an AD? IF this really was only about 2 posts in a FORUM, not emails, not anything else, something that the forum moderator could delete if requested, then this actually makes me sick.

  56. I don't get it... by AtariDatacenter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I mean, I dislike spammers just as much as the next guy. But why is this a newsworthy story? Allegedly, someone posts a message about their anti-spam product on an anti-spamming message board. The claim is made that the poster is a spammer. So the story becomes that a spammer posts an advert to an anti-spamming message board.

    Aside from it being a bit uncooth, why is this suddenly The Hunt for Red October? Sure, it was kind of a stupid thing, but what's the big wreck that I should be rubbernecking over?

  57. They don't punish them like they used to.... by grolschie · · Score: 2, Funny

    How 'bout a good ol' tar 'n featherin'?

  58. Re:Spammers are not the problem by bigsteve@dstc · · Score: 2, Insightful
    We can filter by IPs or keywords or addresses or whatever, but they one thing they can never disguise is their message: it has to be available or they're just sending static. Part of that message has to be some way to contact the company, or else there's no way for you to order their penis enlargement cream or online marketing guide.

    Unfortunately, some spammers are using so called "reverse proxies" installed on hacked machines to host the webpages / email boxes mentioned in the crap they send you. To find the true address for the spammer you need to locate and reverse engineer the hacked machine.

  59. No this is about many messages by RevSmiley · · Score: 3, Informative

    There were many messages and the moderators of the antispam foum at dslreports/broadband.com have deleted all but a few of them.

    I am really having quite a laugh about so many /.ers not knowing anything about dsl reports/broadband.com. It's like the consumer reports of xDSL and Cable broadband. There is even offical online realtime tech support provided in some of the ISP forums by the some broadband ISP's . ISPs are rated by the consumer there as well.

    --
    As you can see I don't care about my karma.
  60. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by iamweezman · · Score: 2, Informative
    Stopping -or at least reducing bulk/junk mail is easy. You need to fill out a form at your post office and get on the mail preference list with the Direct Marketing Association. Check out these links to how to use the USPS and the DME to help you.


    junkbusters.com
    or dmaconsumers.org

  61. Re:Spammers Fight Back by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's pick this one apart piece by piece.

    And spam, like junk mail, is protected by the constitution. So although it may be a great inconvenience, the First Amendment will never fall to inconvenience.

    I don't think so. Only because unsolicited faxes, soliciting in public and business areas and other solicitation laws are in effect.

    Also, anti-spam laws tend to hurt small businesses far more than established companies.


    Yeah, usually Spammer businesses. It's like saying, "But banning small and cute rodent killing will hurt small rabbit killing businesses!"

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  62. You want to stop the spam? Stop the money? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    The only reason you are getting spam is because someone (client) is making money by paying someone (spammer) else to send you (target) spam. We know (at least I do) that the client makes his/her money when target buy the product they are selling.

    Solution: Don't buy anything you get a spam for.

    But you might not know how the spammer gets paid? Again I do know because I used to work for these people. There are three different contracts a client can make with a spammer. First is paying a set amount of money per each email sent, this is very small amount, 1/100 of a cent. So the money to be made for a spammer is in the number of unique email address he/she can send email to. The second contract type is page views. You know the spam with the pretty graphics. Under this contract type, each time you open one of these emails the spammer gets paid. And just how does the spammer know you opened one of his/her email? The images come from the spammer's web servers and logs you image request. It is a little more complicated than that but you get the picture. And last contract type is web traffic to the client's site that results in a sale, again not going into details. Cha-ching, they both get paid.

    Before you start whining that you don't buy any thing that was spammed;
    1) Someone out there does and you can't stop them.
    2) I don't care.

    The only other recourse is to try to get the spammer booted off of his up stream provider. The spammer's provider(s) could be some little Podunk ISP or leased lines from the big boys. And the only way to get them booted is to complain to the right people, and no the /. forum is not the place.

    How is this done?

    Forget about doing whois on any domain or machine names you find in the email headers, they are most likely forged or just plain crap string of characters. Grab the first IP address of the smtp server closest to the origin of the message. Take that IP address and go to www.arin.com and pug it into the (IP) whois search. (ARIN assigns the IP addresss in the US and knows whom they are assigned to.) If the IP address is assigned to a US company it will give who and how to contact them. If the IP address is assigned in another country then the registry will be listed and just follow the link and repeat the (IP) whois search there.

    Usually an abuse@the_ip_owners email address is listed. Now you have to do is forward a copy of the spam to that address. If enough people forward email/complain spammers get the boot.

    Will you take the blue pill or the red pill?

  63. Re:Spammers are not the problem by pe1chl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Spammers don't send out millions of emails as a fun and educational hobby. People and companies pay money to advertise this way. They should be the targets of action against spam.

    Unfortunately the companies they work for are often just as filthy as they are themselves. Not worth much to go against them.

    E.g. I have become a victim of a Russian spammer who works for "companies" like mail15.com. They send spam about there "new mail service" to mostly Russian mail addresses, but instead of using a valid reply address they forge random sender addresses within a domain that I own. This has resulted in thousands of bounce messages sent to me, and an exposure to a herd of clueless system administrators who cannot setup a mailserver (those mailservers sometimes re-try every minute for several days to send a bounce to a nonexistent address)

    The Spammer himself cannot be located, because they use open proxies on cable- and DSL networks. The owners of those networks don't give a damn.

    The mailservice itself is run by ruthless people in Russia who do not mind if someone complains.
    They have also defended their application form against measures like you describe.

    So what can I do??
    The only real persons to attack here are the clueless families that have installed Internet sharing software on their Windows PC. They are the medium that facilitates this anonymous spam.
    I don't understand why the author of AnalogX Proxy has not been locked away as a terrorist.

  64. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by zcat_NZ · · Score: 2, Funny

    "..NP.." ? Nitpicking is one word.. :)

    --
    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  65. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by zcat_NZ · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let's say I've got the best lock I can get (Spamassassin).. I'm still getting 100 advertisers per day at least testing the doorknob.. most of them bring lockpicks (l0ckpicks...) with them, and about 5 a day manage to pick my lock and sucessfully shove their advertising in my face, even though they can obviously see that I'm trying to avoid it.. and all of them are wearing ski-masks.

    --
    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  66. Re:I've really had enough by Cl1mh4224rd · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Is it really that hard to download a mail content filter, or hit delete?
    Is it really that hard for people to accept that we shouldn't have to put up with that kind of crap. Has the world really become so pussified that they'd rather just cover their eyes and ears than stand up and fight?
    --
    People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.
  67. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by gurumeditationerror · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It should be made law everywhere that [SPAM] or [ADVERTISMENT] or something like that should be included in the header/subject.

    Then any spam that doesn't bare the mark should be sent to some organisation that fines the company advertised.
    Chasing the spammers is hard, the people paying the spammers should be targetted instead.

  68. Re:Spammers Fight Back by McDutchie · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Legislation may not be the answer to stopping spam. More than 30 states have anti-spam laws already, to no effect.
    Good point. If only you had stopped right there.
    And spam, like junk mail, is protected by the constitution.
    ::buzzz:: WRONG!! Thanks for playing, please try again. Spam is behavior, not speech. You are free to say anything you want, you are not free to shove it down my private inbox unsolicited.
    [...]
    Also, anti-spam laws tend to hurt small businesses far more than established companies.
    Yes, justice is indeed for sale, but we knew that.

    Hey, two out of three ain't that bad, for a spam apologist.

  69. We cought a spammer! by michiel.h · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Drain his blood!
    kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!" they yelled and started their intense dance under the darkening sky.

  70. Banned? by Kylow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am unable to get to slashdot from my IP. I get on an open proxy and I'm able to get to slashdot. Banned? In God's name, why?

  71. Re:I've really had enough by jonadab · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > Come on. Is it really that hard to download a mail content
    > filter, or hit delete?

    If you can even ask that question, it's obvious you don't get very
    much spam.

    Mail content filters, even the best ones (full bayesian classification
    is at this time the best available) mostly don't work, or require
    huge amounts of effort to "train" them and then still partly don't
    work. As for hitting delete, if I get RSI that way, can I send you
    my medical bills?

    The fact that the contact method is email shouldn't matter: any
    outfit that contacts you seventy times a day and refuses to identify
    itself and refuses to stop, for _years_, is actively harrassing you.
    That's criminal, and I want them incarcerated and jailed. If they
    were using the phone instead of email, that's exactly what would
    happen. No, telemarketers, though annoying, are not the same; we
    get maybe five calls a day tops, and any given outfit never calls
    us more than once a day, usually not that often. Spam pours in
    continuously, every hour day and night. Additionally, you can
    tell a telemarketer not to call you anymore and generally that
    specific telemarketing firm will abide by that. If you try to ask
    a spammer not to send you any more, they put you on their "lots
    and lots of spam" list. (Yeah, I read the article about the
    wealthy spammer who claimed to honor no-more-spam requests, but
    even assuming she was telling the truth about that, she would be in
    the minority.)

    --
    Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  72. Re:I have said it before and I will say it again.. by Suidae · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Filtering spam out of your inbox helps to make it more profitable for spammers. Anyone who is smart enough to filter spam is smart enough to ignore the products anway. Instead, route it into a holding bin, regex it for URLs and once or twice a day, download everything from those URLs to the bit bucket.

    Get all your friends to do the same thing. Bandwidth costs spammers money, so make them pay for sending spam by using that bandwidth. They sent you are URL, so they can hardly complain if you take advantage of it.