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The Economics Of Spamming
Shardleton writes "What kind of an idiot would buy penis-enlargement pills? Even more idiotic, who would buy them from a spammer? Apparently LOTS of people, according to this article at Wired. The operators of a spamvertised order site left their customer logs exposed. There were 6,000 orders for the pills since July 4. Sayeth Wired: "Do the math and you begin to understand why spammers are willing to put up with the wrath of spam recipients, Internet service providers and federal regulators.""
Offering e-mail recipients "free pornography" if they download a software program. The program often provides the pornography, but only after the user's computer dials a 1-900 number to an overseas location, racking up hundreds of dollars in phone charges.
"Pump and dump" stock schemes, in which a spammer sends e-mails touting a certain stock and encourages people to buy it. The stock's value goes up, and spammers sell it at a profit.
Accepting payment for an item without sending it. Spammers bet that someone buying Viagra or pills for the enlargement of body parts would be too embarrassed to call the police or Better Business Bureau.
Of course, if there was ever need for proof that there's a sucker born every minute, just check out this quote from the Wired article:
John.
Maybe they work?
Fleur de Sel
There's now going to be about 6,000 very embarrassed men if these logs remain accessible.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
... I had always wondered if anyone would actually buy from a spammer.
Any chance the spammer did a media honeypot? Released fake records to make marketers *think* he was successful?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Ok, reading the article and following a couple links - here's the penis pill spammer!
Braden Bournival
561 Montgomery. St, Manchester, NH 03102
Tel. #: (603) 669-7422
Email: frappe_boy@yahoo.com
Do whatever you want with this info but don't blame ME!!!
My Stack Overflow user
What kind of an idiot would buy penis-enlargement pills? :(
Meeeeeeeeeee
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
an idiot with a small penis
Hey do you guys remember WANG COMPUTERS?
Hahahahah wang.
Anyhow, dont be shocked. Look how many GNC stores there are these days. They sell nothing but sugar pills and snake oil.
But they make billions selling Stacker 2 to fatties too lazy to excersize and too weak willed to stem their eating.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Despite my vehement loathing of spam, a recent incident is making me question how we go about dealing with it. Recently, Something Awful has been having issues with the SPEWS list, a popular spam blacklister, who according to Something Awful blacklisted a whole chunk of IP addresses that happened to include their own unabused server without offering recourse or explanation simply because it had the misfortune of sharing address space unknowingly and unwillingly. I'd call that overkill, and more offensive than the perceived problem of spam itself if truth be told. Bayesian filters work, so why do we need to continue inadvertently censoring netizens who have nothing to do with spamming?
I tell you, folks, after reading this article and hearing about what anti-spam proponents have come up with for solutions, I'm starting to have second thoughts about the whole deal. For me it comes down to to the freedom of speech issue -- I've always been told that if you can't handle free speech you don't agree with you obviously can't handle free speech -- and I suppose just because something irritates me doesn't mean that the greater good would be served by silencing that something.
Another perspective is that the amount of money being pumped back into the economy by so-called unsolicited commercial e-mail is nothing to scoff at, and perhaps legislating it in some tolerable form such as limiting a company to one commercial message per person per day would create a new legitimate business method in this country. It's something to think about, certainly. I'd hate to think we're going to lose another revenue stream to outsourcing before we've even had a chance to give it a go locally, and this may be a way for us to recapture some of those IT jobs that have been lost and generate a whole new crop of successful entrepeneurships.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
... who for into Hussein's e-mail box and then invented the cyber jihad? Oh, yeah, it is the same guy. Never mind.
-1: Troll for the whole story.
Suddenly, telemarketing doesn't seem so bad. At least my household never got phone calls from perverts offering pics of underaged teens, unlicensed pharmacy ads, etc. And to top it off, telemarketing is a manpower intensive operation whereas one guy can send out a billion e-mail letters on his own. At least telemarketing provides jobs.
The penis enlargement lotions work much better. Send me your email and I will tell you how to take advantage of this great offer!
Worst. Sig. Ever.
It's a glandular problem!
DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE
ok(In reality, the wired article was linking to the exposed customer logs which now returns a 404.)
So if a black hat hacks into and exposes security holes for a spammer....
... does that make him a whitehat?
{ - Generic Guy - }
This guy is clearly over his head. He's committing fraud and is going to have to do a lot more running to do when the FDA and FTC get involved.
--
me
If there is hope, it lies in the proles.
NOT.
More and more I've been getting spam that advertises various unscrupulous things, usually the offer of pornographic pictures, but offers no links and has a bad return email address. There is literally no way to contact the the sender without email header hackery.
What is the point? They can't gain anything from this and leaves me completely baffled..
Spam, telemarketing, informercials... there's a sucker born every minute, even in a downturn of the economy.
Other customers included the head of a credit-repair firm, a chiropractor, a veterinarian, a landscaper and several people from the military. Numerous women also were evidently among Amazing Internet's customers
Talk about salesmanship!
New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
Considering that spammers essentially lie, cheat and steal to make money...what's to say they didn't intentionally leave their logs exposed on purpose? And then find someone to 'leak' the information?
These are the same people who send spam advertising anti-spam software.
I don't trust anything from a bunch of gutless criminals.
or at least have their penis cut off.
What kind of an idiot would buy penis-enlargement pills? Even more idiotic, who would buy them from a spammer? Apparently LOTS of people, according to this article at Wired. Of course. If it wasn't hugely profitable, they wouldn't do it. Simple as that. On a side note, we need a complete overhaul of how we handle spam. If idiots quit buying from spammers (you know the kind, the ones with 5 different "internet boost/download enhancers", weatherbug, a few GAIN utils running at once (read: they click YES to everything)) they might get bored and move on to something else like infomercials. Fat chance though. I hate to say this, but there are a lot of people on the inet that don't belong there. And of course, what i've been saying since 1997, you can pass all the laws you want, but enforcement is the problem.
do() || do_not();
Tim Campbell
1235 George Ave.
Windsor, Ontario
Canada
N8Y 2X6
TEL#:(519) 948-9208
This goes against an older article on Wired that said that spammers aren't interested in actually selling anything at all other than e-mail addresses to each other.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I bought them and now every time I pop a boner I pass out.
Just because we happen to be the percentage of the world that is tech-savvy/intelligent/cynical enough (is there a difference?) to see spam for what it is, don't think that for every one of us, there's not 100 Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokels out there just thrilled to death that they finally hit the jackpot, thanks so some guy over in Nigeria.
The bottom line? Never underestimate the stupidity of the average human being.
to see the free previews!
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
hello there my anme is yon adn i am browsing the interwnet and saw this sight. i am wodnring about the "penis elanrgment pils" and watn soem more infomation??? i ahve soem "love isseues" and woudl liek to get thes epills so i can grow many inches preferbaly before steptembre?? sorry abot my englsh i am not anative spiker and i am 13 pls help! just respond thank!
Tiny dicks AND no brains? Hopefully a side effect of these pills is sterilization...
Garg
Garg
Alumnus, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
At a major data center, the operation manager was approach by a spamemr who is operating out of msn. The apparently wished to expand their operations at a resonable cost. Problem is that msn is now chargeing them top cents for helping them to hide the spam. Apparently number were shown to the OO and last I heard they were actually thinking about it. This is a major operation. Nothing minor about it. I suspect that the company will take it up.
It all seems a little too easy to me. Reporters never get setup.... yeah right.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
If these logs are indeed correct, and people are indeed buying these products, then these are the people we need to educate. By them responding to the spam, they are reinforcing the notion that spam is indeed profitable, and the spammers will continue their assault on our mailboxes.
Methinks the only way for spam to truly stop is to make it not worth it for the spammer. Besides blocking techniques, we have to make sure they get no positive responses to those message that do get through.
Unfortunately, this is a society issue. If people really do want this junk, then they are going to buy it. -Phlack
Do you think when survey company X does some kind of cost assessment of how much spam costs companies every year (I believe the last estimate I read was in the $5bil range) they include the time spent reading about how much time is spent thinking about spam? hmm some interesting spam cost sites:
vircom's cost calculator
info world
Advertising pays, or we wouldn't get junk TV, junk post, junk email. Greedy bastards do things that sate their greed. They're not likely to do something that annoys loads of people AND doesn't make them shed loads of dosh now, are they.
But I wore the juice
Where can I get the E-mail addresses of those 6,000 people who ordered the pills? I'm a classmate of a roomate who's sister's boyfriend's father's 3rd cousin is a banker in Nigeria who's looking for someone to help him get 300 million dollars out of Nigeria for a cut.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
Many spammers have found ways to profit from sending unsolicited e-mail without selling a single product, using a range of tactics from simple banner ads to outright deception and identity theft.
It has long been thought that spammers made money only because people bought the products advertised in e-mails, like pornography or weight-loss plans. Now antispam advocates are warning consumers against even replying to spam or going to sites advertised in e-mail, because it could put more money in spammers' pockets.
"I really don't believe [spam] is about selling things," said Joe St. Sauver, a director at the Computing Center at the University of Oregon, who has worked with the state attorney general to craft antispam legislation. "It'd be nice if that were true, but that's not the case anymore."
Online industry observers say many spammers make money as long as people visit their Web sites. In such cases, spammers get revenue from banner advertisements displayed on those sites. Web site operators receive a fee from the advertiser for every user that visits the site, and often use unsolicited e-mail ads to attract Web users there. The recipient of the e-mail does not need to register at the site or pay any money.
Some spammers also use banner ads on Web sites designed to allow people to opt out of future e-mails. For instance, a spammer may include in an e-mail a link titled "Click Here to Opt Out of Future E-mails." But most often the opt-out requests are not honored and spammers simply lure e-mail recipients there to collect banner ad revenue, Mr. St. Sauver and others said.
Spam is generally considered any unsolicited commercial e-mail. Most of it is either deceptive, pornographic, or both, and costs businesses billions of dollars a year in services and lost productivity.
Other ways spammers have profited from spam without selling any products include:
Offering e-mail recipients "free pornography" if they download a software program. The program often provides the pornography, but only after the user's computer dials a 1-900 number to an overseas location, racking up hundreds of dollars in phone charges.
"Pump and dump" stock schemes, in which a spammer sends e-mails touting a certain stock and encourages people to buy it. The stock's value goes up, and spammers sell it at a profit.
Accepting payment for an item without sending it. Spammers bet that someone buying Viagra or pills for the enlargement of body parts would be too embarrassed to call the police or Better Business Bureau.
It is not clear how much spammers profit from these tactics, but it is likely only a fraction of the millions of dollars they pull in each year, antispam advocates said.
Some observers of spam trends downplayed the severity of these tactics.
"We don't really think that's significant, to tell you the truth," said Sara Radicati, president of the Radicati Group, a consulting and research firm that tracks e-mail trends. "I doubt that spammers really get much money for it."
More troublesome, Ms. Radicati said, are the spammers who hijack consumers' identities using e-mail and phony Web sites in a effort to make money.
The Federal Trade Commission and the FBI in July issued a warning to consumers to look out for "phisher" sites, which are made to look like an official Web site from a company requesting personal information.
Typically, an e-mail user receives a message with a link to such a site, where he is asked to enter credit-card, social security and personal identification numbers. The FTC and FBI said that incidents with "phisher" sites are increasing, and that they settled a case with a teenager in Los Angeles who had gone on a shopping spree using stolen information.
Antispam groups advise against replying to any unsolicited commercial e-mail, or clicking on any links. They suggest deleting all e-mails or forwarding them to the FTC's spam database, at uce@ftc.gov.
He spammed through a different company. These were the order logs of the company that paid for the spamming.
If you read about most spammers (i.e. Ralsky, Hardigree, etc.) the one thing that sticks out about all of them is that they're generally not very intelligent. Their choice is to spam and live in the million dollar house, or go back to McDonald's and the trailer park. Obviously, they're not going back to the trailer park without a fight.
It's obvious that they're making money; how else is Ralsky going to afford his house?
Do you have ESP?
Okay, sooo... 6000 orders in a 4 week period?
52 weeks in a standard year (big surprise there for some of you!) so 52 / 4 = 13, thus 13 * 6000 = 78000 sales in one year. For a rough estimate of world population right now I'll take 6.100.000.000 people, but that includes by average 52% women. Thus ( 6.100.000.000 / 100 ) * 48 = 2.928.000.000 and 2.928.000.000 / 78000 ~= 37538 years before every male on this planet has a huge penis and the spam will FINALLY stop!
I suggest lynching spammers, much faster.
Hate me!
Look how many GNC stores there are these days. They sell nothing but sugar pills and snake oil.
What makes you think that? GNC sells several useful health products that have very real effects. I buy my multivitamins there, as well as protein powder. Unless the legally-required nutrition label on the side is lying to me, each serving contains 30 grams of protein, just like the container advertises. How is that "sugar pills" or "snake oil?" I buy the powder to get the protein, the container claims to contain protein, the powder actually is protein. I get exactly what I pay for and expect.
I call bullsh*t on you.
But they make billions selling Stacker 2 to fatties too lazy to excersize and too weak willed to stem their eating.
I've heard this comment all the time, too, and I used to think it was true. But as time went on, and I heard the comment more and more, and I met more people taking supplements, creatine, and protein bars/mixes/shakes, I noticed something: they did work out. They weren't just taking the pills and sitting on their asses. Come to think of it, I've never met anyone taking those supplements who wasn't also on some kind of exercise program.
So I call bullsh*t on you again.
Twice in one post. Nice work.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Gotta love Wired for tagging this at the end of the article:
The company's PayPal account shows two e-mail addresses: vze3c9sk@verizon.net and frappe_boy@yahoo.com.
Which implies: sign these two addresses up for lots and lots of spam!
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
6,000 orders * $10 per order * 12 months = a whopping $720,000 per annum. Assuming product is markup up 10%, that gives us a $72,000. Less mainternance costs, less bandwidth costs, less legal fees, how much is really left over?
All your base are belong to us!
So it's come down to this. Morrons that support SPAMers. Shit, will the stupid people please stop breeding? Get a puppy instead or something.
Life is not for the lazy.
I know a little bad publicity is in order for these foolhardy people as a group, but isn't that a little specific of a description? How many ELEMENTARY SCHOOL lacrosse teams are there in Pennsylvania?
OMG! Wau!
The president of a California firm that sells airplane parts and is active in the local Rotary Club gave out his American Express card number...
you really believe these people purchased this shit? these people's credit cards were stolen! ever get emails that resemble ebay's account page or aol's billing or some other fake bullshit thats trying to snatch your credit card numbers.. those things fool a lot more people than "make your penis huge" sells penis pills
what do you think gets done with all those stolen cc's.. the bastard turns around and signs them up for penis pills, porno sitesm, etc whatever gets the comission. sending out a buttload of spam to the same people that your stealing ccs from just obfuscates things to help cover your tracks. this is the real shady shit thats going on with spam.. not penis mail that people are actually buying, people are getting ripped off!
bite my glorious golden ass.
What kind of an idiot would click on a goatse link? Even more idiotic, who would read a GNAA post? Apparently LOTS of people! The operators of slashdot order site left their customer exposed to cmdrtaco. There were 6,000 trolls since July 4. Sayeth Wired: "Do the math and you begin to understand why trollers are willing to put up with the wrath of cmdrtaco, fellow /.'er and cmdrtaco.
A sucker born every minute, and in a few years the sucker gets 10 new email accounts every month!
Just wondering... Do geeks (still) read Wired? I always thought Wired is a mixture between Ikea Catalog and the Circuit Section of the New York Times.
I'm tired of missing out on all these get rich quick schemes. But I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme, and quick!
-- So now the world is a bit more stupid thanks to you.
but of my sites, only one has any members from AOL.
I called them, and reached an agreement whereby they would allow email from my server if I agreed to put my name, address, and phone number on nonexistant mass emails. I have never done mass emailing. Needless to say, they didn't follow the agreement. Email still doesn't get to AOL users, and I have to give them their passwords manually through AIM.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Right after a couple of paragraphs on the "effectiveness" of selling penis-enlargement pills online, I see this blurb:
... read more.
(photo of bald guy with big goofy laugh)
Find out how Novell Nterprise Linux Services
will put a smile on your face
And I though, Dang... penis pills are so profitable that Novell's getting into that business, too?
I alone am responsible for all 6000 orders. Soon, very soon, my penis will be the size of North America, and the world will quake in fear.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
This article points out a simple fact: there are lots of stupid people and we suffer, every day, for their stupid behavior.
This is not a rarity or even particularly frustrating. Really, those of us awake enough to notice it suffer from other people's stupidity day in and day out. Just turn on the television and be amazed by not just the commercials but the programming now too. Go for a drive. Take a walk through a shopping mall. Order food from a fast food restaurant.
The proliferation of spam because of a few dopes is just another fact of life on earth. I try my best to enjoy the irony (while not wearing out my delete key).
I sued a porn spammer and going after more spammer.
Fight Spammers!
My quesiton is, where's the FTC/FBI in all this? Why aren't these people going to jail for operating a fradulent enterprise? Do we not (or did we ever?) put people in jail for that? Or do we just put them on the cover of Business Week and call them "Corporate Executives"?
.cn servers, etc), and if people started going to jail for internet fraud (yes, to the infamous Slashdot "Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison"), then spam WOULD slow dramatically, since most spam is for the same small number of "products".
Sorry of the cynacism, but it strikes me that in the spam problem arena the money trail is the one thing that can be followed (vs. forged header, hijacked
That, and maybe some aggressive advertising by the FTC about the fraudulent, doesn't-do-anything-but-cost-you-money nature of the products:
(Imagine Bob Dole: "Hi, I'm Bob Dole, and like many of you, I thought Viagra wasn't enough, I thought maybe I needed 12" pornstar sledgehammer as well. Well let me tell you, those pills don't work, can't work, won't work, so don't waste your money. I wish they would work, but like my wife Elizabeth, your loved one is just going to have to learn to like your 4" pindick.")
Other customers included the head of a credit-repair firm :
heh...a scammer getting scammed...
a chiropractor :
well, maybe he wanted to straighten out more than his patients' backs...
a veterinarian :
maybe he felt insecure after working around horses?
a landscaper :
Well, according to Hustler, these guys get loads of poontang from horny housewives and their nubile 18 year old daughters, so maybe he just needed it to keep up w/ business.
and several people from the military :
Private Johnson, don't ask, don't tell.
Numerous women also :
I guess penis pumps just aren't cutting it anymore...
PC moderators can suck my White pierced, tattooed dick. If you think pride == hate, s/dick/Aryan meat mallet/g.
Perhaps all you'd need to do is prove that the primary user of an email address was a minor, and wham, bham, thank you for the million bucks.
At the least it might stop people just randomly hitting yahoo.com or hotmail.com email addresses. On the other hand, if you give your email address to a porn site in the first place, some people might argue that you deserve what you get, quite frankly.
Sell pills to people (via spam) that actually causes sterility instead of the virility the label promises. Once we take these mouth-breathers out of the gene pool spammers will have to call it quits.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
Article says cost of pills is $5, plus about $10 in fees to spammers. At $50 per bottle selling price, that is $35/bottle profit.
Do your math again now..
"There was a picture on the top of the page that said, 'As Seen on TV,' and I guess that made me think it was legit," said a San Diego salesman
Jiminy Christmas, no wonder spammers are making it rich. And that guy's a salesman, someone who should know a cheap marketing trick when he sees one. A guy who believes something's true if it's been on TV has probably already traded most of his brain cells for crack.
Responding to SPAM should be outlawed.
It is not free speech. This was ruled with junk faxes, because they shift the cost of advertising to the recipient.
Fight Spammers!
I was watching tv the other day and there were showing three/four spammers, and all of them were saying that spamming is an instance of free speech, and that it should be upto the individual recipient to filter out what should/shouldnt be got. They were also discussing about how ISPs contain monopolies of adware, and spammers are fighting against that. How valid a point is it do you think ?
I created a website a month or so ago to address this issue. I believe this will be the ONLY solution to getting rid of spam.
http://www.spamnazi.org
Oh, well, if his father's jewish...it only make sense that he become a spammer.....Seriously, WTF is with that?!?!?! This guy is an insult to us Jews.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Here is the right way:
"Bob Dole here, and like many of you, Bob Dole thought Viagra wasn't enough, Bob Dole thought maybe Bob Dole needed 12" pornstar sledgehammer as well. Well let Bob Dole tell you, those pills don't work, can't work, won't work, so don't waste your money. Bob Dole wishes they would work, but like Bob Dole's wife Elizabeth, your loved one is just going to have to learn to like your 4" pindick."
So, the log has 6000 responses, with credit card info. I wonder how many of those 6000 are real, and how many are bogus or stolen credit card numbers from pissed-off spamees?
I was reading everyones knee-jerk posts to this article.
/. crowd to be smarter then the normal crowd, guess I was wrong.
A few things stick out in my mind.
Everyone seems to be asking 'Who would buy stuff like this?'.
I always took the
Do the math and draw your own conclusions. How much do you think they are paying for a CD of 1 million addresses? $25, $100? Does it matter?
What is the percentage of sales they need to turn a profit?
Not much.
It doesn't take many people to make it worth there while to annoy all of us.
When I was cold calling I was expected to set only 1 appointment for every 2 hours of work. My bosses were more concerned about the ratio of appointments to work time then they were to how many calls I blew through. Cold calling is cheap.
Spam is cheaper.
Then I saw a couple of duffuses that listed some people's real names and addresses.
Way to go McFly. Do you have any understanding how much trouble you could be in? Lawsuit time.
Then there is the mandatory 'Some people don't even belong on the internet' comment.
What is the deal with you? You only pull your nose out of your linux to shove it up in the air and put down everyone around you. Got news for ya, the internet is for all of us.
There is this part of me that supports laws to kill spamming. But that part is getting laughed at by the other part of me that knows damn well that spammers will move there servers overseas and the ones that stop spamming won't even be noticed. I personally don't even see the reason to make laws against spammers, too many laws in this country if you ask me.
What I want to see more of is anti-spam tools at the user and ISP end. Seems to me that the solution to Spam is probably there.
Anyone wanna take bets on whether Braden Bournival is actually a (now really pissed off) friend of Sklivvz?
At least telemarketing provides jobs.
So does pimping, but that doesn't mean I'm going to recognize it as an overall benefit to society.
Wanna grow your schlong? Do what I do: View pornography! Millions of satisfied customers report a dramatic increase in length, girth and firmness in just minutes, using this ancient time-tested technique.
Disclaimer: Results may not last more than 5-10 minutes.
"In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
...is why I get so much spam which is gibberish. I'm not talking about Portugese (about 1/2 my spam originates from Brazil), I mean actual nonsense, often without links, images, or attachments.
What does someone hope to gain from this? Is it some secret code that will give me a giant viagra-enhanced penis and hot schoolgirls to go with it if I can figure it out? At least for normal spam I can see the motivation.
example: I got mail today with the title "rmw oejectivity" and the body "cwdb". Why?!
-puk
Private right of action and statutory damages!
A law that provides this will cut down on spam because spammers will be sued on a daily basis until they stop.
Fight Spammers!
In my previous incarnation, I worked for a hard core spammer (I could care less what people do with my code, as long as they pay me).
One job was spending a day and a half building a small ecommerce site selling 'get rich on the net, quick' seminars on tape. $2000 for the top end package.
They sent out 60,000 emails the first day and did $30,000 in sales.
Spam does pay!
Reminds me of "the rope" from Prayer of the Rollar Boys. It was a street drug that left the use sterile. Cheezy movie, but I love cheezy movies.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
is everone who considered it a smart move to enter my freaks list.
My girlfriend uses it, and she has a 5" clit!
http://www.thedailybull.ca/article.php?id=158
Oh great. Somebody learns that most people are idiots and this is supposed to be news? Just great.
"Man in the Moon and other weird things" - wfmh.org.pl/thorgal/Moon/
There are a number of scripts (going by such names as "Formfucker") foating around to generate random (and totally bogus) orders by filling in spammers' forms.
Can't help but wonder if this is the case here.
I get two - three of these penis spams a day, despite my best efforts to get them stopped. i just want to go up to thier corporate HQ and tell them my penis is plenty big enouhg :)
Once I have this information, I would like to give it to Spamhaus or some other organization, preferably one with an advertising budget, and have them do a spot on tv explaining the dangers of spam.
Maybe the government should do a public service announcement about it. You see, the majority of people who buy this crap are not internet savvy, but you better believe they are television savvy.
I think the FTC would be much better off spending its money to educate potential victims of spam than it would going after the actual spammers.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
You don't need a huge penis, you need one that's bigger then that of your neighbours. That way, all the women around will come to you and with you.
...
/. crowd here.
Therefor spam will never stop, someone is always going to want a bigger one.
Oh, btw, no insult intended to the
On behalf of all sensible users on the internet, and myself, I'd like to say:
FUCK YOU.
Thanks.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
In principle, I agree with you. But, on the one hand, you argue that
if I don't like what someone's saying on TV, I can change the channel
implying that speech on television is "free speech" (since you have a way to avoid it). However, when refering to email, you write
don't tell me I can simply hit the delete button - thats not something I should have to do.
Does this imply that you shouldn't have to pick up the remote control and change the channel -- that the television should just read your mind? After all, in both cases (watching television and reading email) you are choosing to do so, and you are choosing to focus on a single instance (channel or particular email). If you don't like that particular instance, you either (a) change instances by using the remote control or the next/delete button, or (b) change mediums by turning the television or the email application off.
What's the difference again? Like I said, I agree with you in principle, but your logical argument here on what constitutes "free speech" is weak.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Makes me wonder if democracy is such a good idea.
6,000 in one month - register them as a danger to our
country.
Telemarking created a lot of jobs...jobs which the federal do-not-call lists are jeopardizing. Not sure how I feel about it because the phone never stops ringing at my parents house because of them. Salon.com ran an article about it but the link is broken (provided here in case it gets fixed). Here's the Google cache of it.
On a side note, I use Mail.app in OS X and the Junk filter is pretty damn good. I get 20+ spams a day and it only lets 3 or so in. Sometimes legit mail got lost and I'd have to dig it out of my Junk folder, but not anymore (because it "learns" over time). The updated Mail.app in 10.3 (Panther) is supposed to be even better, too.
Hey, be careful. Remember the pool What to do with a captured spammer?.
I am far away.
http://arhuaco.org/
Wives and girl friends...perhaps?
..if these companies are remotely serious about business. but they're not. as stated in the article - prosecuting frauds are hard to do. even though they figure they guy behind it all is a reformed neo-nazi (jewish mother, was it?), they guy to fall is a 19 yr old chess wizard who think he's smart. and how many of them aren't there out there?
companies like that set up shop in a day, and I expect, close faster.
no, I think the right approach should be to secure your servers (no relay, spamfilter), and seek out the evildoers with a cluebat.
Come to think of it, what a nifty idea. To bad I don't have access to a server I could perform such a feat from. ;-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Good thing I ordered mine in June!
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Can't talk about, therefor can't learn anything.
Cogentco's $1,000 for 100mbps is one heck of a deal, one I wish I could take advantage of. Even their $3,000 for 100mbps for service providers is pretty darn good.
... and that they have heavy restrictions on what you can do with the bandwidth.
Pity they're so involved with spam
The other problem is that you have to be in a CogentCo connected building, and most of them are really ugly places around Downtown LA. (At least here in Los Angeles).
So that's really too bad about spam, since this looks like a great solution for inexpensive high bandwidth.
D
You can't make this stuff up.
mitch
Someone implemented on the idea from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels after all. Here is a link to the famous quote from the movie.
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
Yes, now you can easily have Apache penis!
Maybe we could build a distributed system to flood the spammers order system with lots and lots of fake orders, making it impossible for him (or her! that's disturbing) to cash in on the real orders, thereby removing the possibility to make a profit.
Ofcourse, the cases where you'd have to call a particular number would be a bit more difficult, but i'm sure someone can come up with something.
I am at a loss for words. But this reminds of of an article in this month's issue of Astronomy magazine:
What is the stupidest astronomy question you can think of? How about this: "What are those bright things in the sky?" They're looking for competition with this question... Do you think the fucking retards who bought through spam could beat it?
So does pimping, but that doesn't mean I'm going to recognize it as an overall benefit to society.
Absolutely. There are a number of professions in which every practitioner deserves to be unemployed and (preferably) starving on the street. Some that come immediately to mind:
- Dictators
- Hit men
- Spammers
- Telemarketers
- Purveyors of Reality & Train Wreck TV
- Terrorists
- Secret Police & their agents
- Preists, popes, cardinals, vicars, and other misc. spreaders of religious dogma and deception
- Intellectual Property Attorneys (Not all attorneys, just all IP attorneys)
...to name just a few.Some jobs offer an inherently negative value to the overall community and society, even if their immediate value to themselves and those who employ them is a positive. IP attorneys who shake down inventors for having violated submarine patents filed by someone with a vague idea and no idea, or intention, of how to actually impliment it are one example. Darl McBride is another (IP attorneys trying to hijack and heist the hard public work of others through false claims, FUD and innuendo). Osama bin Laden is a third example, while telemarketers scamming retirees out of their life savings are a fourth. Spammers certainly fit in this category as well.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
OK, so a spammer left his logs showing who ordered from him open.
Did anybody get a copy of the logs - I sense a chance to put some chlorine in the gene pool - let's locate these morons and insure that their penises don't work for reproduction.
In fact, what a great way to improve the breed - create a pill that actually does increase the size of the user's penis (so no false advertising claims), but first renders them irrevokably sterile.
(Note to humor impared: This post is a joke. I would not condone damaging or killing somebody purely because they are stupid.)
www.eFax.com are spammers
I used to work for a small software company where most of our sales were made through direct mail. I think our gross sales peaked at about $2 million one year while I was working there in the mid-90's.
Each direct mail piece sent to a prospect costs hard cash to send, for printing, postage, labor and mailing list rental. Yet it was our experience that a response rate of 0.5% was sufficient to yield a profit.
Once you have identified a profitable offer and a mailing list that's rich with customers who respond to direct mail, you have a license to print money. That's why you probably each of you reading this receive two or three pieces of direct mail every day.
The following two comments I posted at Kuro5hin discuss this in great detail:
- The Importance of Advertising to Business
- Direct mail is very scientifically targeted
Now, if you consider that the cost of sending spam is insignificant when the spammer can hijack an open relay, you will understand that spam will never stop until purchasers stop responding to spam.Simply installing filters on your own machine won't help. The people who purchase sexual enhancement products over the Internet don't know from spam filters.
I think the end to spam will come only when every ISP and mail hosting service installs filters that are enabled by default. Only then will the response rate of spam be reduced to the point that it's no longer economical to send it.
I think it's likely the day will come when ISPs will be forced to install filters that cannot be disabled. Possibly this will be ordered by various national governments.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
A friend and I actually DID go through with a make money fast scheme. Back in '92 when the Internet was really starting to get buzz, we put an add in Popular Science promsing "Valuable information on the Internet just $10" or something similarly hyped. What they got was some photocopied BS we downloaded ourselves; we even reduced it and double-side copied it to keep our costs down.
We figured it was totally legit since, if you read our ad carefully, we did provide exactly what we promised.
I think we got about 10 requests, which we fulfilled, and we ended up basically breaking even or even losing money.
I mean who the fuck gives their profession when ordering penis pills?
Other customers included the head of a credit-repair firm, a chiropractor, a veterinarian, a landscaper and several people from the military. Numerous women also were evidently among Amazing Internet's customers.
ISPs already run mail servers that require validation in various ways to send mail through, and often to receive mail as well. The reason why your idea is moronic is that how you choose which signatures are valid is just as broken as a spews or orbs list.
Spews.org provides valuable (FREE) service to people who are sick and tired of spam.
Somethingawful on the other hand, is a driven by a community of hateful teenagers, and their leader Rich Kyanka who's the biggest money grabbing whore on the internet.
Another perspective is that the amount of money being pumped back into the economy by so-called unsolicited commercial e-mail is nothing to scoff at
... but how does it compare to the cost of the infrastructure needed to send them all in the first place?
....be taking a shitload of their own pills.
'Cause they are about the BIGGEST PRICKS around.
Not to be confused with Darl McBride. He's just one of the biggest DICKS in recent memory.
Variation: subscription service for intelligence improvement pills. Charge $9.95 for a month's supply. When you get smart enough to stop sending me $9.95 a month for sugar pills I have proof that they obviously worked.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
I can tell you from personal experience that pills and this newfound lotion DONT work. Trust me.
But dont worry I can help you, I am an engineer. I pondered long and hard until I am cam up with a solution. We simply cannot change who we are. However, for those of you who are a little 'bit' of a lesser man, you can change who you are with!
Send me your email address today, so I can hook you up with one of our Little Ladies. They are 3/5 the size of a normal woman in every aspect. Don't just take my word for it, read what our satisfied customs have to say:
"The real beauty, other than the Little Ladies of course, is how generally relative we all are"
Al Einstein,
Iowa City, IA
So act now and send your info to:
small@hands.com
The site has pulled the list of 6,000 people who supported that spammer with money. Does anyone have a mirror?
"If we're so smart, why do we work here?"
"Intelligence has less practical application than you think."
Spam does not require someone to be smart, it requires one to lack certian kinds of ethics and to be willing to live with persecution. Personally, I wouldn't do it. Even if you gaurenteed me that I'd make millions, I still wouldn't do it. Partially because I feel it is wrong but also because I wouldn't want to be a social outcast. None of my friends or family would have anything to do with me if I was in a profession like that. All the toys in the world don't make up for human relationships (in my book at least).
Instead of going after the spammers, why don't we get wise and go after the people who hire the spammers?
After all, behind every spammer is someone trying to hire them.
Make it against the law to employ a spammer!
Get an undercover 'hit squad' to buy some of these products, which will eventually lead them to the people hiring the spammers, and then fine the hell out of them.
After a few rounds of this, once word gets out, nobody will hire a spammer again. Spamming, as a business, eventually dies.
What do you all think about that? Too simplistic?
If you sling enough sh|t on the wall, some of it's gotta stick.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Did the writeup on this story remind anyone else of the expensive, ongoing, and utterly ineffective war on drugs?
...
The war on drugs in the US deals with the problem almost entirely as a 'supply' issue. Decades of failure should convince anyone that you can't solve what is essentially a 'demand' issue by stifling 'supply'. It seems that spam is no different
The question is, do you go with a 'just-say-no' campaign to educate email consumers about spam, or do you accept spam as a (legitimate) fact of life, and work on (government and self) regulations to make it manageable?
Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
Last fall I had my credit card number lifted from a small website I ordered some electronic parts from. They maxed out the card very fast, and many of the charges turned out to be for places selling penis enlargment products, and things of that sort. As it turned out, these items were shipped to other victims of credit card fraud as I found out when some packages arrived for me. I tracked the source down and found that they had used a different stolen credit card to ship items to me. I'm guessing this was a sort of calling card left by the morons^H^H^H^H^H^H thiefs who stole my card.
I always thought that people gullible/uneducated enough to fall for spam would also be too uneducated to run a computer well enough to handle the email in the first place.
Guess we've done too good a job of making them easy to use...
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Remember Alan ?? Now if we can just get the home addresses of the responsible parties mentioned in this latest article, they too can learn the power of the Slashdot Effect.
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
I seriously hate spam. Really. But a few good moments has been cast upon me sifting through Mozilla's "JUNK"-folder.
A fraction of the tens of thousands of spam letters I've received the last three years are quite funny. (Being a former network administrator at an IT-company handling domain registrations, my address is on a _lot_ of spam lists.) Today I still receive at least a hundred per day.
Funny spam #1, with a personal touch:
Subject: Get Null@NullNull.com
[graphic image saying "Be who you are"]
Hi Null,
Chances are you'll switch ISPs in the next year. Or possibly change jobs.
[...]
Avoid the hassle, and always stand out with your own personalized e-mail address:
Null@NullNull.com Now that's unforgettable!
Click here to get Null@NullNull.com now.
-----
Mmm. Just don't forget to expand those macros right (or, preferably, just don't spam me at all). Null@NullNull.com. Yep, that's personal. "Be who you are", indeed.
Funny spam #2: This is a weird one. Someone offering an award for anyone finding some really neat devices, like:
"The mind warper generation 4 Dimensional Warp Generator # 52" and "The special 23200 or Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built in temporal displacement. Needed with complete jumper|auxiliary system"
Here this letter can be found in its entirety.
Not to mention the infamous "INCREASE YOUR EJACULATION BY 631%" pills. I don't want to know how they came up with that number.
Anyhow, in my IMAP folder, the funniest will stay preserved for the future, where things like these are history ("Granddaddy, we saw a spammer in the museum today. It was really ugly!").
Tracking the money collected might just perhaps be a start[1].
[1]Math is hard. - Barbie-Doll.
Apparently, there is a small but significant range in which you're smart enough to use a computer, but too dumb to know what to do with it.
It used to be called AOL, but I think the segment is expanding...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Do't foet trolls.
Great post.
The idea that anything that creates jobs or money is automatically a Good Thing is hilariously stupid.
(I'm an IP attorney, but the English kind and we're all cute and cuddly)
I prefer the Swedish Penis Pump myself.
Take all the hackers, spammers you can find, kidnap them and put bullets in their heads.
Bet peeps will think 2x about hacking or spamming...
no more spam!
On TV?!!!
Wouldn't the FCC be a bit concerned with that
...and cogentco doesn't want to get rid of their known criminals. It's hardly my fault that SomethingAwful is hosted on an ISP from which I will never want to accept mail.
If shutting down spamhavens involves hurting a few "innocents" who are giving money to the spam supporters, then I don't care.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
The 6000 idiots uncovered here would be handily outvoted by the spam-haters of America, who are known to number in the millions. As I recall, surveys show that a majority of respondents want spam banned. So, rest easy; democracy isn't falling apart just yet. Not because of that, at least.
Share and Enjoy: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Why didn't the article mention names of the customers? It seems to me that if we can't discourage the spammers, we should discourage the customers, and embarrasing the h--- out of them seems a good start.
If the story gets around that so-and-so had his name published as a result of buying from a spammer, maybe people will think twice about buying, and we'll make spam less profitable (or hopefully kill it altogether.)
Another perspective is that the amount of money being pumped back into the economy by so-called unsolicited commercial e-mail is nothing to scoff at, and perhaps legislating it in some tolerable form such as limiting a company to one commercial message per person per day would create a new legitimate business method in this country.
Are you seriously suggesting that I should have to wade through the thousands of e-mail advertisements sent to me every day by every single "legitimate" business on the Internet, effectively legalizing the theft of billions of dollars from unwilling recipient IPSs per year?
No. The only "legitimate" form of e-mail marketing is confirmed opt-in. Sending advertising e-mail without the prior permission of the recipient is spamming, and the "business" that does this should have their servers nuked off of the Internet.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
My brother had a problem with a domain squatter who took his domain from him when he forgot the registration was about to expire. He contacted the registrar and they said since the registration info of the squatter was fake (phone # & address), if they did not respond within a week to an email they would revoke the domain and he could have it back. So, since all registration info is fake... is it not possible for someone to complain the registrar and then take over since there's no way to get a response from completely fake info?
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
What if someone used spam to fight spam? They could send spam to collect the e-mail addresses of responders. Then posted those e-mail addresses to a public forum. It wouldn't decrease spam initially, but it might have a damping effect. A recipient would not know if their response would get them pills or a world of hurt.
The Federal Trade Commission said there is no proof that the pills work as advertised. But the FTC does not have the resources to press a case against such companies, according to spokesman Richard Cleland.
What exactly do they have the resources for then? I mean it seems to me this is just the kind of thing the FTC was created for...
The price is low because the real estate sucks.
Also, those "restrictions" don't seem to apply to sending out unsolicited commercial e-mail, nor do they apply to committing various computer crimes, such as illegally hijacking third party web proxies.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
I know how to get a domain name with false info - no biggie.
I know how to get/use a PO Box with a different or not real name - no biggie.
I know places that will colocate or rent out a server and they won't ask questions about what goes on via the net connection - as long as you pay their higher rates.
So we have the server, we have the address, we have the, and we have a domain name.
Anyone can make up something to sell - fine.
But then you have to be able to take in the credit card info, process it, have that money go into a bank that allows that sort of thing and then keep that money.
That requires a bank account, which now post 9/11 requires a lot of hassle and proof of id to setup - let's assume they set that up prior to 9/11.
But no credit card processing system I can think of (And more importantly the merchant account that puts it into the bank) will allow you to do something like this.
It would keep/block your funds if it even let you set it up in the first place.
I'm truly curious how these guys are getting CC processing if they aren't actually delivering the product that they are advertising.
Even if they are just trying to say "we are back ordered, just wait" and using that to get more money and then eventually taking the money out of the account and just fleeing to the Virgin Islands.... Even then - a bank won't let you take out $300K+ and just leave with it - there is a lot of paperwork involved there...
I'm really curious on this one.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
My friend is living proof that spammers make money and he is the reason why they spam in the first place. I had to explain to him that if nobody clicks spam then no one would send it because they would not get any orders. However he sees a pr0n like and clicks it. I had to slap him in the hand and tell him no;-) Everyone should tell their friends this.
Well, the whole point of Spam is to send out your little advert (or whatever) to as many people as humanly (well, as electronically) possible. Now, taking the number of stupid people there are in the world (this is a very high number, especially in these here United States, no offense but it's true). Then cross reference that with how many people have the internet (tens, perhaps hundreds of millions in the US alone).
This brings us to one conclusion, 6,000 seems awfully low.
In all reality, spam is the carpet bombing of advertising. Sure it causes a lot of collateral damage, but it gets your objective cleared without any need for 'market research' or 'targeted marketing'.
Either that ripped of the movie or visa versa. But since that is nothing more than internet folk lore, I would bet that it ripped of the movie. One great movie BTW.
Nearly half of all people are below average
...then present it. Come up with a means to convince cogentco to dump their spammers other than the SPEWS method. I'm sure that e-mail admins everywhere would love to hear about it so that they can stop having whiny little snots bitching that it's so "unfair!" that no one wants SomethingAwful.com's mail packets because they are comming from a cesspit of an ISP.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Lock stock script
The power of Christ compiles you!
Freedom of speech is not absolute, and the "yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater" example is only one of the most simplistic restrictions.
Let's take a quick look at prohibitions of Freedom of Speech that have been upheld by the courts.
Noise Ordinances: Yes, the Nazis must be allowed to march through Skokie, but not down a residential street at 2 a.m. on a school night. Courts have consistently upheld that protected speech can be limited to specific places at specific times so as not to constitute an undue burden of noise or disruption on the public.
Property Rights: Your right to be heard does not include a right to come on my property, against my wishes, to speak to me. A good example is when ACT UP! invaded a church during services and started shouting "you're killing us" as part of a protest against the Catholic Church's policies. Had they kept it on the sidewalk in front of the church, it would have remained a legal, protected protest. When they entered the church, they became criminals and were arrested for trespass.
Unsolicited Advertising: Opt-out is very supported by the courts. After one telephone call or junk postal mail, if I provide you with proper notification, you may not make another unsolicited call or send me another unsolicited advertisement by post. If you do, I may sue you. The law gets even more restrictive regarding unsolicited advertising by fax, requiring opt-in.
Violence: Incitement to riot is not protected. Advocating the violent overthrow of the government is not protected. Using speech intended to goad someone into a physical altercation is not protected. To take the shouting "fire" in a movie theater example a step further... shouting "what are ya, some kinda faggot" in a crowded redneck bar is not protected speech.
Fraud: Speech intended to defraud me out of services, property, or money is not protected.
Slander & Libel: Slanderous or libelous speech is not protected.
Protection of Children: It is illegal to sell pornography to children. Though it is protected speech, its distribution can be restricted to a certain age group.
Commercial Speech: You can be forced to warn people your product is dangerous, tell people how much fat or sodium it contains, etc. Commercial speech is MUCH more restricted and burdened with rules and regulations than political, religious, or artistic speech.
Broadcast Censorship: Ever seen hardcore porn during prime time on the networks? Of course not. The Supreme Court ruled that since radio/television waves enter your home unbidden, they can be regulated much more restrictively than print media.
CONCLUSION
This isn't a comprehensive list of the legal restrictions on free speech. It's just some of the major ones. There are little ones (remember that DeCSS was found not to be protected speech), and even coersions (*legally* withholding funds or licenses from groups that exercise their first amendment rights in a manner the government does not like).
So don't argue that spam is an exercise of free speech. Spam is commercial, it violates the property rights of its recipients, and is subject at bare minimum to the same restrictions set on phone and postal solicitations.
Of course my favorite quote on free speech is from Hubert Humphrey: "The right to be heard does not include the right to be taken seriously." - Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
"If shutting down spamhavens involves hurting a few "innocents" who are giving money to the spam supporters, then I don't care."
Why is it that geeks always tout the rights of the individual over the masses UNLESS the individual's rights are being trampled on to fight SPAM (and I'm talking about the innocents, not the SPAMMERS)?
We're all too happy to battle against legislation/regulation that leaves gaping loopholes for child pornographers (I wonder how much karma I'm going to burn for that?), but if a legitimate, honest Netizen happens to live in the same IP block as a spammer (and we're talking about much more than CogentCo here), then *the innocent guy* should burn in hell ?
The point that was made about SPEWS is that the general blacklist goes too far and there is no mechanism for the innocent to protect themselves (until such time as we can all register blocks directly...).
*IF* the folks behind SPEWS made allowances for good netizens to be whitelisted out of a blacklisted block, that would be another matter entirely.
THIS behaviour is no less despicable than that of the spammer -- you are declared guilty, sentenced and the only way out is for you to get rid of all spammers using your service provider. And, most of the time, that is beyond your control.
Cheers,
JAKD
Those are probably bogus emails to harvest valid emails to sell. Usually they put a 1x1px image in the mail so they know who read it and who did not, then they sell those addresses as "1million valid addresses, only $99.99!!!"
Now, I'm gonna sound like a luddite, but there's a good reason. I *hate* HTML e-mail.
Having said that, there are times when I'd like to be able to embed an image to be grabbed from a remote server so that I can determine when a user is online.
I've never looked into creating HTML e-mail more than idly playing with the settings in Eudora (yeah, I run Windows 2000 on my primary workstation, Linux and the BSDs on the others). It seems that Eudora 5.2 won't allow it, unless I'm missing something.
Any pointers?
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
... because it was coded by the open source community ;)
I heard about one of those pump and dump schemes before, from a company called SCO.
Tom: You know there are people in this world who don't have to put up with all this shit? Like that guy that invented the pet rock. You see, that's what you have to do. You have to use your mind and come up with some really great idea like that and you never have to work again!
Michael: I don't think the pet rock was really such a good idea.
Tom: The guy made a million dollars! Y'know, I had an idea like that once.
Peter: Really? What was it, Tom?
Tom: Well, all right. It was a Jump to Conclusions mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor and it would have different conclusions written on it that you could jump to.
Michael: That is the worse idea I've ever heard in my life, Tom.
Samir: Yes, it is horrible.
Tom: Ah, look. I, I gotta get outta here. I'll see you guys later, if I still have a job.
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
Oh wait... This isn't a joke...
Oh my god... I'm sorry...
I think the signal to noise ratio makes a big difference. My email is over 98% spam. If I didn't have a filter on it, it wouldn't be worth it for me to keep my email address.
Does Mr. Big Dicks have the right to speak so much that I lose a useful channel of communication? Should I be forced to use the telephone and post office because he needs to advertise at a level that totally drowns out all other corresponance? I don't think so.
If 98% of tv were crap and advertisements, I wouldn't bother with tv anymore. Oh, wait, I don't. Nevermind.
That legend has a white bullet next to it in the list. From the site:
White bullets are the ones most commonly associated with "pure" urban legends -- entries that describe plausible events so general that they could have happened to someone, somewhere, at some time, and are therefore essentially unprovable. Some legends that describe events known to have occurred in real life are also put into this category if there is no evidence that the events occurred before the origination of the legends.
t'nera semordnilap
I didn't know Jason Blair started working for Wired News. ;-)
Tried searching for "formfucker" but Google just threw up one lame-ass site whose author was too busy with crappy animations to bother with any actual content, and separating the words just resulted in the inevitable list of millions of pr0n sites with the word "fucker" in.
Well I did buy those pills, and I'm quite happy with the extra 2.5" I got with my money.
And your ISP is guilty.
If you don't want to stop email from spamming ISPs, don't use SPEWs. Duh. Those of us who do will continue to use it.
Honestly, I have no idea who these people are who are idiotic using SPEWs but don't want to block spam from spam supporting ISPs. That's the point of SPEWs.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Okay, I get about 20 spams a day. If I assume it takes 2 seconds to glance at the sender/subject, determine that it's spam, and press the delete key, that's 40 seconds per day. In a year, it's 14600 seconds. That's over 4 hours.
I make a little over $20 per hour, salaried. When I do consulting I charge $50 per hour. Since the spammer is not giving me 40 hours a week, he owes me $200 a year. At the minimum, I lose $80 per year of my time, in addition to higher access fees to pay for his bandwidth.
Don't give me crap about pressing the delete key. I'm not interested in investing $200 a year in advertising, especially for crap and porn.
GO AWAY AND GIVE ME BACK MY EMAIL ACCOUNT!!!
I had once stumbled upon an interview with the guy in charge of Demetrius Software, a russian spamming company. He genuinely believed he was doing the right thing, and, indeed, helping his clients achieve their business goals.
He illustrated the effectiveness of spamming thusly. My services cost $500 (can't remember the actual figure, but it was something to that effect), he said, for sending messages out to a list of 4 million addresses. However, I had more than once been approached by people starting small businesses and not having even $100 in their budget for advertising, asking to, like, send their spam to 400,000 people for $70. I never refused, he said, and guess what - all of them were repeat customers coming back in a short while and ordering full-scale mailings for the full price.
This would only mean, he reasoned, that spamming boosted their business well enough.
..when I saw that the mentor for the spammer responsible for pinacle snake oil was
'a former neo-Nazi leader who turned to the spam business..'
gees that man must have NO social life.
I mean his conversation must be a killer at parties:
"so what do you do then Mr Hawke?"
"Oh I annoy millions of strangers every day by sending semi pornographic emails and sell fake medication. In my spare time I terrorise ethnic minorities"
------
beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
This is slighly OT...but during the shooting of Ocean's Eleven, Matt Damon borrowed some money from George Clooney for gambling and then to pay him back, he wrote him a check with "lap dance" in the area reserved for describing what the check is for. Of course, George couldn't cash that check.
Those who trade freedom for security will lose both, and deserve neither" -- Ben Franklin
OK -- your ISP is found guilty ... you just get to share his jail cell (nice nit to pick!).
... no argument ... *I* ban e-mail from entire netblocks, as an individual, FOR MYSELF.
Regarding the point of SPEWS, you're right on target and there are lots of people that are too happy to condemn based on the provider, rather than the source.
That is their (and your) right -- if you don't want mail from someone using a "bad" ISP, then fine
You are missing the fact that tons of users are having incoming e-mail blocked without their knowledge or consent.
Now, since SPEWS only provides the listing, a big part of the problem is the ISP / mail services that block based on the SPEWS blacklist.
I wonder how long it will be until some of these ISPs / mail services get sued for blocking e-mail ?
This is the direction that things are headed -- if the SPEWS solution is so good, how is it that the only people who are going to lose are the innocents being improperly blocked and those trying to stop the spam by blocking ?
Cheers,
JAKD
I wonder if this is the same person? http://209.41.170.70/neighborhood/pdfs/6-5/a2news6 -5.pdf
Wednesday, May 21 (2003)
Accident: 2:39 a.m. Police
responded to a one-vehicle accident
on Stinson Road involving Braden
Bournival, 19, of Manchester. No
injuries were reported
http://www.ifn.net/users/dbunting/fraud/credits.tx t
Braden Bournival
NH Chess Association (non profit)
816 Elm St. , #472
Manchester, New Hampshire 03101
United States
Domain Name: PHEROMONE-LABS.COM
Created on: 12-Nov-01
Expires on: 12-Nov-02
Last Updated on: 25-Apr-02
Administrative Contact:
Bournival, Braden quiksilverenterprises_inc@yahoo.com
816 Elm St.
Manchester, New Hampshire 03101
United States
(603) 623-3225 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Bournival, Braden quiksilverenterprises_inc@yahoo.com
816 Elm St.
Manchester, New Hampshire 03101
United States
(603) 623-3225 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DTS619.COM
NS2.DTS619.COM
Using spam to pump up shares????
Are you serious? Being stupid enough to "buy" penis-enlargement pills on the basis of an unsolicited email is one thing, but this?
The entire reasoning behind western society is that one becomes affluent through excercising one's intelligence. People who invest in the stock market tend to be comparatively affluent..If sending out an unsolicited (and untargeted!) mass email can convince enough investors to buy a share as to significantly affect its value, then it is a sorry look out for us all...
More worrying, when you think about it; for an appreciable change to come about in the value of a stock in the absence of any genuine news from the company, there must be significant interestes involved, and that means pension and/or investment funds. And if it didn't work, the spammers wouldn't be doing it....
Perhaps it's time to talk to your bank.....
No, but, when you decide to participate in the public email system, you agree to conduct yourself according to the established protocol.
/. act as if SPAM is a deadly sin--a crime against humanity punishable by grave consequences (violence! -- and sterilization! -- if some rants here are to be taken literally).
As it stands, the standards that govern the operation of the email system permit both the delivery of unsolicited messages as well as commercial content within messages.
When you bring a mail server online, you implicitly agree to operate according to the protocol standard -- this means that you must accept for delivery all conforming messages, if you're able. Reject forged headers, sure... authenticate senders, as best you can.
But, the arbitrary blacklisting of accused spammers, and the innocent users who just happen to share their network, flies in the face of the way the system is intended to work.
Spammers who obey the protocols, by sending conforming messages, are not abusing or breaking the system as it is articulated and standardized. Blacklisters who prevent network users from making use of the public email system, are, on the other hand, out of line.
This idea that you have a private system and can therefore make arbitrary rules is indirection. You're not just operating a private system--you're operating a node in a vast network alongside other mail operators, and you've agreed to certain obligations as a result.
If you don't want to provide a forum for people to communicate by email, don't operate an email server. It's that simple. You agree to the protocol when you decide to operate on the network.
I'm all for technological solutions to the spam problem, and I'm all for direct action... but, these holier-than-thou assholes at SPEWS and other vigilante organizations are far, far worse than most spammongers--by orders of magnitude.
People here at
To those, I say: get a fucking grip... go talk to a Bosnian about genocide and then complain about your email, you fucking dick. Keep things in proportion.
The government will begin distributing free penis enlagement pills, the amount of spam will drop by up to 50%!
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Received this few days ago.
The message was in russian orignally,
but with help of online translation,
you all can enjoy it.
From o.v.smirnova@jps.net Mon Aug 4 04:31:11 2003
Return-Path:
From: o.v.smirnova@jps.net
Reply-To: who@data.net
Subject: - - - This is interesting- -
Dear Ladies and gentlemen,
1) Services
Dispatch of your message to addresses from our base, USD/mil.messages 15/0.1, 110/1, 700/10.
2) Is sold a unique program complex under Linux/Unix
for dispatch email. The address of the sender is latent
from the addressee.
Throughput upto 1 million messages/hour
Cost depending on a configuration starting from 500 USD. Support, updates.
3) Email address databases
Description Amnt Price(USD)
Private persons Russia&CIS 7 mil. 25
Foreign private persons 126 mil. 150
Foreign users of marriage
agencies and acquaintance
sites 2,27 mil. 75
'Buisness Russia 2003',
information on 600 000
companies 0,61 mil. 25
All information is sorted by domain name and contains
only unique addresses within this database.
Payment through web money.
Our address: mail - db@ stenos. kiev.ua
**Please, remove empty spaces from our Email.
We bring the apologies for inconvenience.
a simple whois shows him to be with cybergate (gate.net, whom I used to work for), formerly of Fort Laudedale, FL (where I live). Currently they are owned by EarthLink, the evil entity (whom I also used to work for) who merged and then ransacked Mindspring, who I used to love. Oh well, just a thought. It was local info...I had to respond.
Because, as it turns out, two other physicists solved the same problem independantly at the same time.
Newton and Liebnitz get cocredit for inventing the calculus at the same time. What's more, everybody uses Liebnitz's because Newton's sucked.
English physicist Jonathan Swann demonstrated his electric lightbulb the day before Edison did.
The wheel was independently invented all over the world.
More than one person can legitimately invent the same thing.
Go figure.
KFG
You don't. You can simply not use email, or, you can use email that is implemented using protocols that forbid unsolicited email.
You forget that what spammers are doing (when header forgery is *not* involved, that is) is within the protocol. It's poor ettiquette, yes. But it's *permissible* for SMTP-based email.
I don't know, ditch your SMTP-ish email for X.400 or something... you agreed to foot the fractions of a cent it costs to receive an email, when you decided to receive email on a system that permits unsolicited messages. I have no sympathy for you.
You have a few choices, of course. You can filter at the mailbox level. A good ISP should be able to set up procmail for you on their end, so you don't even need to download messages that are spam.
Or, fucking, IMAP. Christ, there are plenty of options outside complaining and logical fallacy.
There were 6,000 orders for the pills since July
Shit! At that rate, pretty soon almost *everybody* will have a huge penis! I better get some of those pills quick, or I'll never be able to show mine in public again!
I wonder how long it will be until some of these ISPs / mail services get sued for blocking e-mail ?
Cyberpromo tried this with AOL years ago. It didn't work.
ISPs are private entities. They are perfectly within their rights to reject e-mail from other third parties for any reason -- even if it's just "I think that the CEO of that ISP has an ugly haircut". There is no "right to send e-mail" anywhere, and unless there is a contractual agreement on the part of the ISP to receive mail, they can drop packets all that they please.
Your question makes no sense, as there is no impromper blocking. SPEWS is functioning exactly as it should.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Sorry, my "your question" statement was in reference to your comment about an ISP being sued for blocking mail.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
"What kind of an idiot would buy penis-enlargement pills?"
I say, what kind of idiot would swallow a Spammers penis-enlargement pills?
While I appeciate the humor in this article (especially the Penis Man outfit) I have to wonder, did the author actually buy the pills, and take them?
I mean we all have guesses at the ethics some of these spammers possess. It wouldn't suprise any of us for a spammer to just take the money and run. Is it that far a stretch to imagine some psychopath spammer sending out poison as penis enlargment pills? (Also, I think some of the traditional aphrodisiacs are in fact mild poisons.) (I'm getting distracted.)
It's gotten so bad that I sometimes think about sending out spam myself, but as a parody, something to the effect of "Fuck you! Give me Money!" and an explanation that this is what spammers are really saying. I would never actually do this because as Faith said when she took over Buffy's body "It would be Wrong."
I was thinking of these things while reading the comments and got another idea. What if there was spam sent out warning people that spammers selling penis enlargment pills are actually selling poison. Or better than poison, but a poison that renders you completely impotent for life? (For the irony.)
And then I thought that it wouldn't even be neccessary to send it via spam. You could just write up an urband legend "Forward this to Everyone you know! Won't Someone please think of the Children!" type of email a la Good Times warning people of the danger of Spammers Penis Enlargment Pills. Just put a fake quote in there about the FDA or other government organization (OHS?) and the clueless idiots would do the rest.
The Urband Legends websites could write an explanation that it was a hoax meant to point out the fact that you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet and you should never trust a spammer and anyone who buys from a spammer should have the shit beat out of them (or at least people think about it, even normally non-violent people).
Hopefully it wouldn't quote me because then people would be out to beat the shit out of me. That's the problem with these hoaxes, once they get started they get completely out of control.
So in conclusion, this post is just something that is nice to think about. You should not actually do it because it would be wrong. Not to mention that I don't want to get the shit beat out of me repeatedly for starting yet another forward this to everyone you know email hoax.
This signature used to contain a cute kitty virus with ansii art. Please set the slashdot editors on fire. Thank you
98. I will remember to check links before posting.
99. I will remember to check links before posting.
100. I will remember to check links before posting.
Here is the humorous article I was refering to.
This signature used to contain a cute kitty virus with ansii art. Please set the slashdot editors on fire. Thank you
An Wang is worth historical mention. He
invented the basis of core memory, the predecessor of RAM, in 1949. Core memory was as critical to computers of the late 1950's and 1960's as RAM is now. Prior to Core, memory solutions included drum (like today's magnetic disk), vacuum tubes, the Williams Tube, and Delay Lines - all of which were problematic.
Here's another link to his biography. (Note that it took several years of lawsuits before he got any money.)
With the royalties from Core he founded Wang Labs, which until about 1990 was a player in the calculating and computing markets. In 1965 Wang Labs built one of the first electronic desk calculators, and built several successful pre-computer desktops, like word processors and such. But Wang Labs never successfully transitioned into the general purpose PC market (AFAIK.)
Core was expensive. According to This, 131K cost $823,500 in 1968 - about $.75/bit. Cost of memory dropped below $.01 per bit in the late 1960's or early 1970's. Now, 256MB=$60 =~ $.0000022 per bit. Today, that 256MB would cost $1647905221.37 - a bit steep for a desktop.
Info on how Core works as well as some interesting historical information is here.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Your AOL example is flawed -- Cyberpromo was a spammer who *was* sending UBE, not an innocent party who was being blocked *through no fault of their own*. World of difference.
... consider the case of a local phone company who blocks *all* incoming calls from another carrier because that carrier has a client who is a telemarketer who violates do-not-call rules.
"ISPs are private entities. They are perfectly within their rights to reject e-mail from other third parties for any reason"
I'm not so sure
Is there really a difference ? Should there be ?
You say ISPs are private entities when I would think they are more like common carriers and obligated to provide fair access to those who haven't done anything wrong.
Cheers,
JAKD
"Ideas don;t come from only one place necessarily. That's a complete infofascist myth - it's completely possible for multiple people to independently have essentially the same idea. "
Really? Name the other people who came up with E=MC^2, and explain why they didn't get a Nobel prize.
Do you think I can still cash the check?
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
I'm not so sure
Phone companies have a status called "common carrier". This status gives them certain rights over other companies, but also regulates them on a number of levels; for example, they are not allowed to filter traffic based upon content.
ISPs are not common carriers. Spammers have tried this argument in the past, but it has never been held in a court of law that ISPs qualify as common carriers. There are all kinds of other regulations/fees that would apply if they were -- it's not just a 'de facto' application.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
You obviously don't know shit about processing credit cards in the "high risk" sector, which is what penis pills and porn sites are.
You think Visa takes the hit on a chargeback? Or the bank? No, it's the company the made the charge. They get a pretty hefty fine, and can possibly get terminated by Visa/MC if their chargeback ratios are too high.
Do you think they are going to PAY the spamming moron that is carding them? No, they're not. Not to mention that most IPSPs (third party CC processors) are pretty good at catching carding these days. And even some of the merchant account gateways are good these days. ESPECIALLY for high risk.
In short, your post is pretty misleading and just plain wrong.
In the law there is no overlap between theft and copyright infringement whatsoever.
Of course most of the 6000 would-be purchasers are probably other spammers, since we all know they are in dire need of penis enhancement.
However, that's not really what's happening here - spammers aren't endangering anybody's life by doing it except perhaps their own. It's a lot more like shouting "BIG SALE ON VIAGRA!!" in a crowded theater, which really annoys all the other people who are there to watch a movie. And it's like shouting it from somewhere in the dark in the back of the theater where nobody's near enough to whack you for it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Before I got DSL, I would get up in the morning, dial in to my work email account, start it downloading the couple megabytes of Powerpoint technical training messages or happy corporate fluff from our marketing department, start the coffee pot brewing, and go take a shower. By the time I was out of the shower, the mail would be there, and yes, spam sucks, but it's lower volume than the bloatware that I really _did_ want to receive, and there'd be COFFEE!
Now that it's a year later, yes, the spam level on my personal email account has grown, but it's still less than my routine work email. (More importantly, I've got an ISP that provides Unix shell accounts and I'm running Procmail to trash 80% of the mail that the ISP's SpamAssassin has flagged as probably spam, and downloading the other 20% to my PC, which drops 98% of the suspected spam into the trash folder where it's nicely sorted and I can validate that it's almost all spam.)
So download mail while you're eating, or watching TV, or doing something you enjoy, and don't sit there waiting for it. Or read Slashdot while you're waiting for the mail to download.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
when I sue them for $500 bucks per infraction in accordance to Federal anti-junk fax laws (for the first time, I'm glad I'm on dialup)
A wonderful side-effect of subscriptions, you can write your FP in response to a story still to be released for discussion and 'pounce' on it when it goes live.
Don't let the subject set you off, it's just a phrase.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
The sleaziest, most evil group I've gotten telemarketer calls from was the California Narcotics Officers' Association, a "charity" which provides "training" for drug war thugs. One of the more evil things they've done has been to lobby against medical marijuana, because the suffering of cancer patients is *much less* important to them than the risk to political correctness that would happen if sick people could use dope as medicine - why the next thing you know, penalties for possession of a drug that's much much safer than alcohol or tobacco might be reduced, or the public would have less respect for these officers when they're routinely violating peoples' civil rights with illegal searches or planting dope on people to bust them. Sorry, but I'd rather get a call from a Herbal Fake Viagra peddler.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Don't these spammers already know my shaft is enormous? And its owner has no issue with its expansion on demand? Perhaps they should start offering manuals on new unique ways on how to use it.
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Forget the embarressment factor, just put the money in a bank account, and collect interest until they cash the check. Of course you need to cover overhead (stamp at 35 cents, check and envelope at 25, plus your time) but that is where you should plan on the most money.
I've even heard of a guy doing that. Advertised Texas Oil well, money back if no oil in 5 years. Took the money, put it in a bank CD, sent it back 5 years latter, but kept the interest himself. Was legal because he had rights to oil on his land, and had a shovel that he was digging a well with. (obviously he would never strike oil) Might be a urban legend, but seems real anyway.
"Let's read that comment again: "Ideas don;t come from only one place necessarily. That's a complete infofascist myth - it's completely possible for multiple people to independently have essentially the same idea.""
Unfortunately for you and the poster, he's tying two things together to say something that's false.
First the original poster isn't arguing from the "some ideas are unique to an individual", but more a "all ideas are general". Then he ties that to the second part "That's why it should be clear to someone willing to apply a moment's logical thought that patents are about control, not innovation." which is only true if one ignores that "not necessarily".
The intent of patents is innovation. Much as the intent of speeding laws is to reduce accidents, and death. Because some people willfully abuse either one doesn't change the purpose of either one.
The original poster would have been correct in saying: The purpose of patents is innovation, the abuse of patents is control.
Now, I think that in some countries the legal system works such that private plaintiffs can bring something like criminal charges. If governments won't go after the bastard, then if only some enterprising spam victim could initiate "private plaintiff" criminal prosecution in a foreign land, then extradite...
Now that would be a Great Thing.
Toll-free number (should cost the spammer by the minute): 1-800-576-4044
Email addresses: vze3c9sk@verizon.net and frappe_boy@yahoo.com
I'm surprised there are over 250 comments at +2 and nobody seems to have posted this. The Wired article includes the spammers' toll-free customer service number and email addresses at the very end. I tried the toll-free number and it really works; you'll get the voice mail of Amazing Internet Products.
- Smiley =)
"Never put off for tomorrow what can be avoided altogether"
I get the distinct feeling that this is a PR stunt. Maybe even a "gain Google PR" (page rank) stunt, what better way to get your penis enlargement site to show up higher on search engines than to get Slashdot, Wired and half a million other sites to link to you?
Want to buy the corrections to the dictionary?
From the headlines...
Shardleton writes "What kind of an idiot would buy penis-enlargement pills?"
Someone with a small penis maybe?
Even more idiotic, who would buy them from a spammer?"
A lot of people do stupid things, but hey its a free country and its their life.
You probably heard that he said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." He was referring to his having used previous discoveries as a foundation for his work.
At the time, this was somewhat new. Many people had been rediscovering and reinventing things, but often they were either isolated or kept their discoveries secret. There was some published history of previous scientific work, but it was not common.
The Royal Society began as a small group of scientists who demonstrated and shared discoveries. They adopted publication of discoveries and peer review as an important part of their work. This activity then collected scientific work, made it available, and allowed others to expand upon discoveries instead of spending time repeating the discovery process. This was the real cause of the Scientific Revolution which spread from Europe. Newton joined this process and his discoveries were thus examined, recorded, and made visible to everyone.
Even though Newton is known for his work in physics and mathematics, it is because he made his work public that we know about his work. And most physics scientists probably learn of Newton's work before they reinvent the calculus and combine it with observations of gravity.
Merely pulling up these discussions has already triggered the alarms in the system administrator's office. Clicking on a link within here would only repeat the alarm, but they're already checking what you are doing.
This works the other way round too. I'm willing to get into big trouble for annoying the spammers who annoy me. And I've got a meeting this morning about my recent harrasment of spammers after they started complaining.
I asked my friend, who is working in the "adult entertaiment" industry, what's behind this penis enlargement stuff. "Well, that's just pills which don't work. But that's fine with me, since I'm making $60 commission on each sale, and mans buy it happily" But he don't use spam, though.
1. Send out a bunch of e-mails for Nigerian bank schemes, penis enlargements, etc.
2. Kill whoever answers.
3. Repeat.
4. Spammers market goes away.
5. ????
6. No more spam.
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
Maybe we should take up spamming ourselves.
'100% natural organic cyanide - makes you stiff!!!!'
Then when all the dopes that but this sort of crap from spammers are dead the spammers will no longer have a market.
Just a thought
At least they do in this country.
Chances are a bank here (Australia) wouldn't print a name like that on the cheque to start with.
The companies register people and yellow pages refused to list a company that wanted to call itself "Get Stuffed" (An all you can eat restaurant). I guess times may have changed now.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
At least to catch people who deserve to be scammed. Funny how spam and scam are intimately linked.
Try this on for size. Note none of this stuff is the least bit reliable so don't send any money, we'll bill you...
Joey Skaggs taking prankstering to a higher level: Art!
and a prank or business idea: hunting for bambi
Warning: I think the concept is a sick reflection of some sections of our society. It ain't funny, or at least, if this is a scam, the customers deserve to be ripped off.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
Those mother fuckers...
Trus that many of their products may be sugar pills in a pretty package but do people really fall for that? I guess so since there is a GNC in about every mall you go into but I don't get how stupid people can be sometimes. I lift, I eat pretty healthy and I don't need no pills to help me out. I have tried protein shakes in the past thinking that adding protein would increase your muscle mass but your body can only process so much of the stuff. In the end, hard work and eating semi healthy will win out over laying on the couch and popping pills. I'm amazed at the "quick fix" mentality today.
MMORPG Fan? Prove your worth!
There's a mention in the article of the practice of using real, innocent third parties' addresses as the return address for spam. Click through the link and you find a company that says it has been victimized in this way and is planning a lawsuit.
I hope they succeed and wipe these scumbags out. The same thing happened to me earlier this year. I started receiving hundreds of bounced mail messages from various mail servers. My address was the return address, and the content pointed to some particularly disgusting porn.
I suppose I should have tracked them down and sued them, but I don't have the time or the gumption to go through that process. I did forward some of the emails to the National Fraud Information Center but never heard anything back.
No sig? Sigh...
My main argument why spam is evil is that it costs me money. The spammer is forcing me to spend money downloading his crap, since I have a dial-up Internet connection and metered local calls (and no alternatives), so I pay for every byte I have to download. Morally, I consider it to be on the same level as theft, since the spammers cause me to lose money (not to mention time) without me gaining anything in return.
4. GNC also sells soy-protein. On the protein utilization scale, soy has the lowest value. ie. just 30-40% of soy can be utilized by body, the rest is excreted. Besides, soy protein intake leads to man-boobs.
Uh-oh... I can see a new advertising campaign coming...
ENLARGE YOUR BREASTS! INCREASE YOUR CUP BY 1-3 SIZES WITH OUR NEW HERBAL SOY BREAST ENLARGEMENT PILLS!!!
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
Actually, no, it's not just a nit - it's the entire point. Except you've got it slightly wrong - it's more like "you get to share his jail cell, except you can leave whenever you want." Strange as that sounds. ;-)
If you, Cheffo Jeffo, are using the ISP CrapNet (for example), and CrapNet takes on the well-known spammer J.H. Delete - then CrapNet may find themself listed on SPEWS (and perhaps a few other RBLs). Then nobody mailing from a mailserver inside CrapNet (including you) will be able to send mail to an external mailserver that uses SPEWS.
However - and this is the important bit - if you decided to shift your mail operations to another part of the Internet not under CrapNet's control, you'd have no problems. The CrapNet block would not extend to follow you. Conversely, if CrapNet expanded their operations and acquired more IP space, their new IP space would get listed.
You see, CrapNet is the target of the blocklist. You're not. But as long as you're choosing to use CrapNet's internet resources (and presumingly paying them for it and thus supporting their spam-supporting actions), you may find your access to the private networks making up the rest of the internet to be somewhat limited.
But if you choose to leave CrapNet and go somewhere else, you're fine. Bottom line - it's all a matter of choice. You can make whatever choice you like. Stay where you are and support an organisation that is providing resources to spammers - or not.
Personally, I wouldn't even really care about the blacklisting inconvenience. I'd leave an ISP the second I realised it was supporting spamming clients and refusing to terminate them, regardless of whether it was blocklisted or not. I have no intention of ever supporting spammers, even indirectly. Your choice may well be different.
If so, then their ISP is not doing things properly. They should make it very clear when signing up customers that they have certain parts of the net blacklisted and no email will be received from those netblocks. I certainly wouldn't give SPEWS even one iota of the blame for this problem - it's all the fault of the ISP.
Similarly, if configured properly, a failed email attempt should bounce and the person who attempted to send the email should realise that their message didn't get through. They can then try some other way to get their message through. If this doesn't happen, it generally means that the sending mailserver isn't configured properly.
Note: I'm presuming here that you're meaning "ISP is sued by their customer for blocking email that was meant for that customer." It may well happen - I'm sure the potential is there. I would be interested to see how the US court system would handle it - though I'd hope that if the ISP spelled everything out in their sign-up information and the customer/client agreed to those conditions, then the customer/client wouldn't have much of a case. Knowing the wild and wooly world of the US legal system though, just about anything could happen... ;-)
Pete.6000 orders?
Someone suggested maybe some of them were bogus orders produced by a "form-filler".
If so... Only 6000? How about 6 million, or 6 billion bogus orders? Using all the spammers' "personalization" tricks so that each order must be individually examined or even followed up on to determine whether it's real or not.
Let's get busy, folks!
(And remember the 11th Commandment: Do Not Get Caught.)
If shutting down spamhavens involves hurting a few "innocents" who are giving money to the spam supporters, then I don't care.
Your post contains the unsupported assumption that those people "giving money to" the guilty party were aware of what the guilty party was doing. Or, at least if you are trying to pretend to be ethical, you are operating under that assumption when you say it's okay to ban everyone giving money to said ISP.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
most girls don't like it that wide
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
Hey, SA now knows exactly what cogentco is doing.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Yes, and had to lose business first in order to even find out about it. Punish you first, tell you what you did wrong later, is NOT an ethical system. (SA's revenue comes from advertising for which they need e-mail to work so they can talk to the advertisers.)
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
How about if we set the hit men on the spammers?
Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the purchases were intended to be gag gifts to friends. "Ha ha Bob, I bought you some penis pills for your honeymoon!" I've bought some ridiculous stuff for that very reason.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
I'm not surprised that New Hampshire is the home of a penis pill spamming neoNazi. Something about a state with a death threat on its license plate ("Live Free or Die") seems to attract them.
May I suggest (from the "Life of Brian") BIGGUS DICKUS?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
You'll need to find an orifice to stick it in. Try Ashcroft, he's got a big mouth and he's a giant pussy to boot.
I propose getting rid of all GUI's and going back to command lines. Let the fools try buying their penis pills and refinancing their mortgages with Unix!
2,928,000,000 - 1, I am already hung like a stallion, thank you very much.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Perhaps, because cogentco created the situation wherein no one wants their mail by hosting known criminals and spammers, they should have been the ones to inform SA of the potential problems.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!