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When Good Spammers Go Bad

pfleming writes "According to this blog article on BadTux by Eric Green, the constant harrassment of spammers has a price. You get a Cease and Desist letter- or more correctly, your ISP gets a C/D letter. But, if you're a hard core geek you just might get your site more notice as it gets mirrored out onto sympathetic hosts. Also mirrored in other locations."

16 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. It was going ok. by rf0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was impressed with the article until I got to the comment "I mean, what do I care about what Windows losers get scammed out of?". Now I like Linux much as the next geek but thats just going to aliante people.

    M$ might be a monopoly but at least they have bought some form of consistency

    Rus

    1. Re:It was going ok. by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No doubt. Calling someone a loser because of what O/S they are running automatically *makes the caller* the loser. Thankfully I've never met anyone like that in the flesh - just on the wild expanses of the Internet. Everybody I've ever met runs whatever O/S they need to do the job, whether it's Linux, Windows, BSD, or whatever.

      That kind of shit is what makes Linux advocates all look insane and results in me having to explain that, no, not all Linux users are short-sighted, socially-inept zealots every time I bring Linux up at work. It's a lot easier to sell Linux to people without the idiotic pomposity.

      --
      Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
    2. Re:It was going ok. by JesterXXV · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Wow...IANAL, but this seems like outright libel to me. Sounds like he could sue them.

      libel n.
      a. A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation.
      b. The act of presenting such material to the public.

      --
      Yo mama so fake, she failed the Turing Test.
  2. Re:better mirror that geocities page by maroberts · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just failed to access his site. Lawyers may fail to shut it down, but slashdot can do it in seconds! :-)

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  3. With great power comes... by xThinkx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... You know the rest of it. Just as comic book characters have such a code, it would appear that computer geeks need one too.

    It's obvious that the folks at evidence eliminator know a good bit about tech, and not enough about morality. A lot of other fine folks who run legit/non-shady companies have the same knowledge but don't use it to trick consumers into using their products (probably because they actually make something useful). Just because you have the power to do something doesn't mean you should use it. Imagine if the loyal slashdot crowd were to use our collective resources to advertise any one issue or cause.....

    --
    Let's get one thing perfectly clear, I did not vote for George W Bush, and I do not endorse what he does or says.
    "
  4. Lies! by Baloo+Ursidae · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When good spammers go bad? Isn't that kind of pretentious thinking there are good spammers?

    --
    Help us build a better map!
  5. My own list of spammers... by vandan · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've got a file with ip addresses of spammers who've pissed me off enough to blacklist them. It's available at http://enthalpy.homelinux.org/spammers.txt.

    I use the following script:

    for I in `cat /etc/firewall/spammers.txt`
    do
    echo Blacklisting Spammer: $I/23
    iptables -A INPUT -s $I/23 -j REJECT
    done

    to blacklist them.

    I personally guanantee that all the addresses in this list have spammed me. If you don't believe / trust me, fine - don't use it. I use it on a production server and have never had any complaints...

    By the way, the /23 in the iptables might be too 'clumsy' for some. You can use /24 which blocks a smaller group of computers around the ip address in the list. /23 works fine for us.

    The list is 98% asian dsl accounts.

    Also, for an alternative solution, try this:

    smbclient -L $IP_ADDRESS

    where $IP_ADDRESS is the address of the computer that spammed you.

    If you're in luck, you'll find yourself connecting to a Windows computer. It'll ask you for a password. Hit enter. If you're still in luck, it will list the available shares, and a list of server names. Pick a server name. If there are more than one, try each one ;)

    Now, download and compile 'smbdie'. Search for it on google. Run:

    smbdie -i $IP_ADDRESS -p 139 -t $SERVER_NAME

    where $SERVER_NAME is the server name you just picked from smbclient's output ( above ). If you are still in luck, you will have rebooted the spammer's computer ( it blue-screens ), and maybe even caused some data loss.

    Really don't like them? Add the smbdie command to a cron job. I've found most spammers have fixed ip addresses, and they become available to reboot again withing approximately 2-3 minutes.

    Enjoy!

    1. Re:My own list of spammers... by alienw · · Score: 5, Informative

      You do realize that this is illegal and you can be prosecuted?

    2. Re:My own list of spammers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except they may not be the spammers but users whose systems were abused by spammers or users who inherited the IP address of a spammer. There is absolutely no excuse for striking back against computers on the other side of the world. You can ignore them, no questions asked, but if you have to cause them harm, do it through their upstream provider. They know the situation and can deal with the problem in a civilized manner. Most ISPs will warn YOU and then terminate YOUR account if they become aware of your vigilante "justice".

  6. The law is an ass by Jardel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That can work for either party, there's nothing new about people filing law suits in order to prevent someone from doing the right thing. It is important to remember however when dealing with such assholes that a letter from a lawyer is not as intimidating and many people think. Lawyers write letters which have little or not legal value all the time, I've received some myself when my old landlord and his wife got divorced and were fighting over who was the landowner. The letter itself wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, but it did have an official legal letterhead. Always make sure you know your legal rights and never trust the other guy's lawyer to tell them to you.

  7. When what now? by Jonsey · · Score: 5, Funny

    When good Spammers go bad?

    Logically, the only good spammer, is a dead spammer.

    Therefore, all good spammers are past their experation date already.

    So logically, all good spammers must be bad. :: Jonsey's Head Explodes ::

    --
    I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
  8. When Good Stories Go Down by vaderhelmet · · Score: 5, Funny

    from the whip-lash-from-slashdot dept.
    vaderhelmet writes "According to this server error on BadTux by the webserver, the constant loading of pages has a price. You get a 425 error- or more correctly, you cannot connect to the host. But, if you're a hard core geek you just might get your site more notice as it gets mirrored out onto sympathetic hosts. Also slashdotted in other locations."

  9. Wouldn't it be nice... by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... if someone wrote a nice piece of mass mailing software that would be free, look great, run fast, spam people like there's no tomorrow and available under a "free but get your paws of my source code" license? I mean, we don't want the spammers to be able to realize that their latest toy doesn't actually send anything and has more backdoors then a Win95 alpha version, now do we? And it automagically has to hook up to a webcam if available, so we can have a laugh as a spammer realizes all his computers are now hosting illegal crap like Britney/Nsync/Linkin Park MP3s, various bad Disney animations as MPGs and files like "SCO_Unixware_kernel.tar.gz" while a RIAA/MPAA APC drives his/her front window!

    Bonus points if said program makes a AYB quote the moment the spammer is sued into the nine hells themselves!

  10. new error page by rutledjw · · Score: 5, Funny
    The page officially says:

    "Slashdotted!

    Not available at the moment due to the Slashdot Effect. Will be back shortly as a (much faster) static page. Thank you for your patience."

    So should this be a new error message? I'm thinking 501 - Slashdot...

    --

    Computer Science is Applied Philosophy
  11. Sales and Marketting by Sabalon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I got a call from some sales guy from some company once. I was busy, so I told him to send me some literature. Got it, looked at it, wasn't interested, so pitched it.

    Apparently the sales guy thought that by sending me junk, he now has the right to call me whenever. First time I told him I wasn't interested, second and third times I added not to call me back. Fourth time I laid into him - he called by bosses number. Fifth time I did some research and sent his boss and a few other high-up's in the company an e-mail explaining how I had nicely asked to stop being bothered by the company and that they have now left a very bad impression, and that I talk with lot of other people that they may want to deal with, and am not afraid of sharing my opinion of a company if asked.

    The VP of the company sent me an e-mail back saying (THE SALES GUY) IS DOING A GOOD JOB GETTING THE NAME OUT THERE SO BUY SOME PRODUCTS FROM US. (no lie - all caps).

    Upshot is I've not been called anymore.

    I look at it like X-10 - they've made some good products, but as soon as marketting/sales starts to lead, even the best company can get dragged downhill.

  12. already taken by cliveholloway · · Score: 5, Funny
    a geek who doesn't know his http response codes. Tch Tch

    500 Internal Server Error
    501 Not Implemented
    502 Bad Gateway
    503 Service Unavailable
    504 Gateway Timeout
    505 HTTP Version not supported

    You'd have to start at at least 506 - but then that might be used by later http implementations

    better to just add a new block of response codes:

    600 Server Slashdotted
    601 Databaser fried
    602 Redirect to Google Cache
    603 Redirect to Goatse.cx
    604 Random error from 4xx/5xx code
    605 Cowboy Neal

    Or just use the HTTP response that I seem to get a lot when viewing slashdot:

    417 Expectation Failed

    .02

    cLive ;-)

    --
    -- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism