Russian Minister Gets Spammed, Spams Back

elhim writes "According to an article in the Moscow Times: 'Spammers last week got on the wrong side of the wrong man, and quickly found themselves with a taste of their own medicine. The man? Deputy Communications Minister Andrei Korotkov. Tired of the endless spate of unsolicited messages that clog e-mail systems everywhere, [Korotkov and others devised] ...an audio message to be volleyed nonstop to the telephone numbers listed in the... [email] spam messages.' Sometimes Russia reminds me of the Wild West."

Comments

Beware the Joe-Job

[The Famous Brett Wat]

Turnabout is fair-play. I used to make a point of phoning one of the local well-known-spammers when feeling particularly irate about him (usually just after getting spammed about the same old same-old again). Haven't heard from him in a while, though. In any case, I want to emphasise that you should be careful when you retaliate. There is such a thing as a Joe-Job (named after joes.com) in which a malicious third party sends out a metric buttload of spam claiming to be from you, and advertising your website, just in an attempt to cause shit for you. This relies, in part, on third parties taking retaliatory action. My own website has been the subject of numerous Joe-Jobs this year, strangely enough. So make sure you aren't hitting back at an innocent bystander.

Oh, and in Soviet Russia, the punchline inserts you. Sorry, but it had to be said.

At last

[fatquack]

a minister who reads his email. If more politicians read their own email (and not a hapless assistant) the problem of spam would be evident to them and antispam legislation would be nearer.
And yes, I know legislation is not the sole solution, but legislation plus technical solutions is the best bet in my opinion.

In Soviet Russia

[Rogerborg]

Just shut the fuck up, already. It wasn't funny six months ago, it's not funny now.

Re:The biggest cost to them is toll free fax

[psavo]

Another fun trick was to use a standard fax machine with a continuous loop of paper. Let that baby run for about 10-15 minutes and you'll create a lot of clutter on the receiver's end.

Like somebody is still using paper faxes.

Not always

[AndroidCat]

The exception to the rule are pump'n'dump spammers. They push the virtues of some penny stock in hopes that some suckers will buy, pushing up the price. Then when the stock hits a peak, they unload their stock (profit!) and let the suckers take the fall.

For that, they don't need a contact method.

Cowboy Baby

[mr_luc]

The turn of the century SUCKED.

It marked the death of the frontier. (I know, blah blah Indians were there first, but the population density was never that great and there were always massive sections of uninhabited land). The remaining frontiers are largely closed to the ordinary man, and are unlikely to ever be truly opened again to the point where you can just go somewhere, stake off a chunk of land, and just LIVE there, and have it be LEGAL.

I know, I know. Progress. We live 1.6 times as long, that's a good thing. Diseases can be treated better.

But, still . . . the death of the frontier marked the inability for a man to be physically independent. Now our lives are played out within the boundaries of 'The System', while our freedom must exist only in our minds.

cue matrix analogies.

Re:Turnaround is fair play: SQL injection

[Kalak]

An Insightful goatse - I'm impressed. It didn't really offend me in this context. I even expected it coming in the cotext you set up, and I'd love to add a "funny" on it for the punchline. Nice website defacement idea.

Too bad screwing with their database technically illegal, since the database is an "asset" for the company. The injection you propose would hurt their asset. You might be removing addresses that opted in (yeah, right).

I wouldn't try this at home, kids.

Easy Money

[donutello]

1. Set up 1-900 number.
2. Spam Russian minister.
3. Profit.

Ha!