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Spammer Ducks For Cover
rabidgremlin writes "The New Zealand Herald has an article about a NZ based spammer who has shut up shop after being at the receiving end of an anti-spam campaign. Good riddance I say, but some of his comments ("never intended to break any regulations" and "I'll just stick to search engines and web sites - that's still plenty of fun and money.") had me wondering if he and other spammers are as really naive as the article makes out."
Since the server was slow even when It first appeared.
Spammer ducks for cover as details published on web
2003-08-19 - By JUHA SAARINEN
A New Zealander who sent billions of junk emails out every day has shut his business after his personal details were posted on the web.
Shane Atkinson - whose business is known as spamming - said the barrage of abuse made him worry about the safety of his children.
His identity as the man behind millions of spam messages promoting penis enlargement pills was revealed in a Herald article last week. Mr Atkinson said that on a good day he and his associates would send out 100 million messages.
He said that since the article was published, anti-spam activists had been "having a field day". He had received more than 20 phone calls, twenty of them obscene.
His personal information, street address and phone numbers were "plastered all over the web", he had been subscribed to a gay-dating site and his email address had been added to "tons of email lists".
"I have already banned my 5-year-old from answering the phone," he said.
The article also led to rackshack.com, the US web service that hosts Mr Atkinson's servers, being entered in the Spam Early Warning System list, which many networks use for blocking email traffic.
Rackshack gave notice that it would shut down two of Mr Atkinson's servers because of the listing, forcing him to move the servers to a different network.
Mr Atkinson has decided to get out of the spamming business, citing the "negative feedback" and saying that he "never intended to break any regulations". He has asked affiliates to stop doing the work for him.
"I sort of feel good now about stopping this," he said.
"I'll just stick to search engines and web sites - that's still plenty of fun and money."
Internet group InternetNZ has said it will file formal complaints against Mr Atkinson with the Commerce Commission, the Ministry of Health and the Privacy Commissioner.
New Zealand does not have specific anti-spam laws.
Oh, and here's one of the abuse-sightings posts that probably did him in (Google thread).
What I find most notable is that he can barely suppress the smirk [IMO] when he says he didn't do anything wrong, and also when he said he was going to stop.
RealVideo can be found here: http://www.tvone.co.nz/programmes/holmes/
Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
Sadly enough, it does pay....I read an article that said over a 4-week period, 6000 people bought on average two bottles of $50 penis-enhancement 'medicine' that was probably gelatin.
Over a year, that can be pretty lucrative. He shouldn't be able to whine about it when the tables are turned, though.
This latest report shows a big change of heart from his comments of a few days ago:
See the full story here [stuff.co.nz].
64% of all statistics are totally useless.
z3ngine.
I therefore think I am.
0-3-323 6484
For those calling from overseas, New Zealand is country code 64.
Hence +64 3 323 6484
Wonder if it's still active or if he's had Telecom disconnect it yet...
From my whitepages:
Atkinson Shane
2 O'Neill Ave Harewood Belfast
0-3-323 6484
And that's in Christchurch, New Zealand.
I think it's because the default superuser account on phpnuke is god. So god posts a lot of stuff on a lot on phpnuke sites that haven't been that modified.
www.whitepages.co.nz
There are 4 "S Atkinson"'s listed for Christchurch. Unfortunatly none of them are in the same suberb as the POBOX listed in his domains contact details. However is cellular phone is. However that cellular number is a pre-pay number, so odds are it's been replaced by now.
P.O. Box 36289 Merivale
Christchurch, NZ 8030
NZ
064211252557
You obviously have not seen the late night informercials advertising how you can have your very own internet marketing business, where you can make money fast in only a few hours per day.
Yes, you can be a spammer - if you sign up todayu!
Scary, No?
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
When you call a toll-free number, the recipient gets your phone number even if you have caller ID blocking. This opens you up for receiving telemarketing calls. Even if you're on the Do Not Call list, the fact that you initiated a call to them might give them the right to call you under the guise of having a business relationship.
The best thing to do with those toll-free numbers is to call them from a pay phone. The recipient pays an extra surcharge for calls from pay phones, and they can't track you.
You cry when someone sends you 1 or 2 spams a day, but then you go ahead and cheer on the people who do stuff like this? That's fucking unbelievable. Have you no sense? It's hypocrisy like this that's going to keep spam a problem forever.
Any responce via phone to spam is a *solisited* responce. "Stop sending me spam" would be a very approperate responce to such a foofoo head.
Because the system is automated, the guy is going to get several million responces to the spam he sent. If you run a business based on this model, you are required in most countries to be taken off their mailing list if you ask.
So, I don't see it as being hyprocritical at all. The guy runs a business of contacting people. If people don't want to be contacted, they have every right to ask him to stop.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
He's right, if you addressed a letter to:
31 High St
The town Christian Cullen comes from
New Zealand
it would get there, no problems.
And we do have post codes, we just don't use them. I always have to look mine up when I need it (only ever when it is a compulsory field on a form, though I usually just put n/a).
If you do need to know a New Zealand postcode, use this. Or find the name of a local rugby player who did good.
Damn made a mistake.... Oppose Opt-in should be... Oppose Opt-out. Sorry folks... Checked it several times too... Proposed legislation in the United States makes it your responsibility to Opt-out of a mailing list as opposed to the legislation due to be inacted in the European Union in October. Oppose all government legislation involving the internet! It all goes against the self governance/regulation principle.
From google groups article:
...Ministry of Health
Medsafe manager Clare van der Lem said making a therapeutic claim -
"Gain 3 inches to your penis, with VP-RX pills!" - was a breach of the
Medicines Act if the product had not been assessed through the usual
route for approval of medicines.
A "therapeutic claim" was defined as anything purporting to "make
better, improve symptoms or cure", said van der Lem. Companies
breaching the law can be fined up to $100,000.
Individuals doing the same face a maximum fine of $20,000, with prison
a possibility.
Uppage there are a few of the expected calls for government regulation of email that we see every time there is a story about spam, and there are the obligitory anecdotes about the hundreds of spam emails that some poor souls find every day in thier inbox.
.procmailrc in thier shell account (if they provide thier subscribers with a shell acc
So here is my usual post about how asking the government to regulate everything is a bad idea, and how I have little sympathy for the poor saps who are getting flooded with thousands of spam emails a day that makes it difficult for them to see the one or two legitimate emails that thier friends might send them each year.
First law. Bad idea because it won't work. As long as there are different countries with seperate governments that have differing attitudes towards the internet, commerce, and law it will be impossible to legislate spam out of existance. That is not to say that I am supporting the idea of one government rulling all peoples or that I am advocating any sort if international treaty on regulating email and the internet.
Far from it.
What I am saying is there are good methods of reducing the flow of spam to your in-box to a trickle, possibly blocking the spam flow completely.
Use a provider that is as concerned about stopping the spam as you are. That means no AOL, no MSN, no Hotmail, etc. These companies are notorious for not only allowing you to get spam flooded, but for allowing thier customers to send spam and not discontiuing accounts that are being used as fake "reply to" and "from" addresses. There are other companies that are just as irresponsible as the ones I mentioned, so you should not think that I am saying that these companies are the only ones that should be avoided.
If you like using the same email and access provider (I've been hijacking friends access accounts for years now), then you should know that smaller access providers often are more responsive to user's (knowlegable and legitimate) complaints than large companies. As an added bonus, thier access rates tend to be low, and they are as if not more reliable than thier corporate competitors.
If you like using a separate provider for email, ask around, do some searches, and choose one that has effective filtering/blocking of spam included in thier basic package.
You can filter the mail yourself with one of the many spam blocking services or filters that are readily available on the internet. Here are some links to some of the blacklists and filters that I know about:
ORDB
MAPS
junkfilter
Bogofilter
SpamCop
SpamBouncer
There are others, some services are free, some charge money. If you are going to use a filter on your own machine that is not part of a service, I highly reccomend that you stick with Free Software so you can learn something about how it works.
You should learn as much about the problem and potential solutions as possible by reading articles about spam that may be not quite as sensational as the currently popular "spammer hunting" genre, but are a little richer in detail and technique. Here is a good primer including some good links, and there's lots of good info on dealing with spam around the web.
You should attempt to encourage your provider to take an active role in helping users avoid spam troubles, either by providing information on how users can filter spam on thier own machines, by providing spam blocking/filtering service, or by allowing users to install thier own
Read, L
"He said that since the article was published, anti-spam activists had been "having a field day". He had received more than 20 phone calls, five of them obscene."
Obscene ones? Must be "thank-you" kisses from his penis enlargement customers.
His personal information, street address and phone numbers were "plastered all over the web". The article also led to rackshack.com, the US web service that hosts Mr Atkinson's servers, being entered in the Spam Early Warning System list, which many networks use for blocking email traffic.
I mentioned this before. Just remember folks.. SPEWS has your name, number, address, change-of-address, time when you eat, when you sleep, and when you realize your Preparation H is not working.
"Rackshack gave notice that it would shut down two of Mr Atkinson's servers because of the listing, forcing him to move the servers to a different network."
So Rackshack.. exactly how many thousands of abuse reports did you receive and ignore before SPEWS tossed you into the dungeon? I think you love your pink contracts a bit too much.
saying that he "never intended to break any regulations".
Rule #1. Rule #2.
"I sort of feel good now about stopping this," he said.
Rule #1. Rule #2.
"I'll just stick to search engines and web sites - that's still plenty of fun and money."
Rule #1. Rule #2. Rule #3. Russell's Corollary.
Please use your favorite search engine to review the "Rules of Spam" or go here.
!@#$% whole-grain cereal. When I want fiber, I eat some wicker furniture. - G. Carlin
Uhm.. it's a *game*. You buy and sell virtual drugs to make a virtual profit. Try checking the link before you rant. =)
As the owner of a few toll free numbers, I can assure you that CID blocking doesn't work. If CID is blocked, sure it won't come up on my caller id at the time of the call - but as soon as my bill arrives, I know exactly who called me sorted by Province/State, City, and eventually phone number, duration of call (obviously), and even the callers that didn't get answered (ie. hung up before VM picked up) or received a busy signal are listed.
Good idea, educating the public about how to track down spammers themselves. Having worked as a PI for a couple of years, and as a reporter, I can physically track down nearly anyone. But I'm clueless trying to identify and locate these spammers. A good thing, too, since my inclination would be to alter their lives in unspeakably nasty ways.
I did trouble myself to determine that, no matter how Web-savvy you are, it is usually impossible to find out "who" sent you that virus.
I clicked on a penis-enlargement link yesterday to see whether going through the order process would help me to identify the seller. No luck. It takes a valid credit-card number just to get beyond the order page, and I doubt that spending $400 for the pills would have given me anything more than a drop-ship address with a fictitiously named client.
-- Rick Ackerman
Argh, for goodness' sake, dont click on embedded links unless you've read the raw email source. A good deal of the links have embedded addresses that encoded your email address identity. By clicking on a link, you've probably disclosed to a spammer that you're a responsive email address interested in penis enlargement. Expect more spam. :(
For example, if the link looks like this in the html source: http://spammer.com/response.cgi?id=123456678 then you can bet that they have a web server that logs the id and they match "12345678" back to your email address.
Likewise, many spams have 'bugs' in them where the recipient id is encoded in a http url somewhere so that they can see who is reading the emails. If you have an email client that shows you a preview, it is quite likely identifying you to the spammers as a valid email address. You do not even need to read these if your client (eg: outlook and its ilk) has got preview mode on.
eg: <img src="http://spammer.com/image.gif?id=12345678"> and so on. These are often 1x1 pixel transparent images so you cant see it, but your mail client will happily fetch it for you and put your id into their web server logs for identifying your email address as 'working'.
If you can, tell it to turn off images in emails. And investigate something like the mimedefang type scrubbers that remove web bugs and and javascript etc from email.
Mind you, if you use outlook you're already in the line of fire.