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Interview With a Spammer
Shipud writes "The NYTimes interviewed Richard Colbert, under the title of 'Confessions of a SPAM King'. Richard talks about one-time credit cards,
WiFi, 'good' vs. 'bad' spam and more."
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These days you actually have to downlad the java script to your computer, because of those clever NYT people, but it's still possible for those who have personal issues with registrations....
Confessions of a Spam King
By JACK HITT
Published: September 28, 2003
Brian Smith for The New York Times
Richard Colbert, spammer.
1. MEET THE SPAMMER
''Click here,'' says my spamming mentor. Hovering over my chair, he points to the computer screen. ''Now click on that file of e-mail addresses there.'' I have been invited by a master for an education in spamming, the practice of blasting millions of unsolicited e-mail messages into the Internet in order to advertise everything from loans with easy terms to women of easy virtue.
''Let's go online and download some software,'' says my guide. His name is Richard Colbert. On the Rokso, or Register of Known Spam Operations (a kind of Most Wanted List for the Internet posted on an antispam Web site called spamhaus.org), Colbert is described plainly: ''Nonstop scam spammer, kicked off so many hosts and I.S.P.s'' -- or Internet service providers -- ''it's hard to count.''
Dressed in blue shorts and a purple T-shirt, Colbert, 31, has blondish hair stuffed under a baseball cap, a prominent diamond earring and a mild twang that betrays his Atlanta origin. He lights up a Monarch menthol as he shows me his computer room, an intimate homemade space built off the side of an aging two-tone mobile home -- robin's-egg blue and white -- which sits among hundreds of Airstreams and Miami Deco single-wides in the Sunset Colony Mobile Home Park in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Colbert claims that he's now on a sabbatical from spamming, but he's watching current events and weighing a return. During this interlude, he has agreed to help me learn how the avalanche of solicitations I receive winds up in my online mailbox every day. Who are these guys? Who hires them? How do they get legitimate e-mail addresses? And finally, can federal legislation currently under consideration actually stop them?
First off, Colbert doesn't think about spam the way I do (or, most probably, the way you do). He likes to call it ''bulk e-mailing,'' for starters. And he considers it just one of the many exciting new markets available on the Internet. He's the kind of guy who is always interrupting himself to tell you about some smart economic angle he has figured out, some new edge.
''These shorts are Dockers,'' he says, pointing at the clothes he has on. ''And I got them off eBay. Shirt? Tommy Hilfiger. EBay. Shoes? Nikes. EBay.''
Colbert and I dig around on the Internet until, under his direction, I find a piece of software that allows for mass e-mailing. These are common and legal, used legitimately by professional archaeologists, say, or chess enthusiasts to form an online group and conduct chats or exchange information.
Right away there's a problem. The software we've selected requires registration or payment. But Colbert says he once used this very piece of software, slightly altered, when he worked with some other spammers who live nearby. So he snatches his phone and calls a neighbor for support. A minute later, we are back in business. It turns out that an unusually large number of spammers live in this area, the stretch of beaches north of Miami that old-timers loosely call Boca and new-timers know as a staging ground for the smarmier characters in Carl Hiaasen's novels.
According to Steve Linford, who maintains the Rokso list, there's a good reason that so many spammers wind up on Spam Beach: ''Boca Raton is where they used to run those pump-and-dump investment scams and where the telemarketing sweatshops are.'' The phone scammers and infomercial wannabes of the 80's and 90's -- who themselves supplanted the land speculators who established Florida's earliest cities upon shifting sand and sinking swamps -- have been pushed aside by the new boys on the block, the bulk e-mailers of the Internet.
2. A SPAMMING PRIMER
How does a spammer obtain a million working e-mail addresses? Most simply, there are lists you can buy off the Internet. But there are also other, cheaper, ways. A ''dictionary attack,'' Co
You can start with some of the addresses listed at the ROKSO.
''Click here,'' says my spamming mentor. Hovering over my chair, he points to the computer screen. ''Now click on that file of e-mail addresses there.'' I have been invited by a master for an education in spamming, the practice of blasting millions of unsolicited e-mail messages into the Internet in order to advertise everything from loans with easy terms to women of easy virtue.
Advertisement
''Let's go online and download some software,'' says my guide. His name is Richard Colbert. On the Rokso, or Register of Known Spam Operations (a kind of Most Wanted List for the Internet posted on an antispam Web site called spamhaus.org), Colbert is described plainly: ''Nonstop scam spammer, kicked off so many hosts and I.S.P.s'' -- or Internet service providers -- ''it's hard to count.''
Dressed in blue shorts and a purple T-shirt, Colbert, 31, has blondish hair stuffed under a baseball cap, a prominent diamond earring and a mild twang that betrays his Atlanta origin. He lights up a Monarch menthol as he shows me his computer room, an intimate homemade space built off the side of an aging two-tone mobile home -- robin's-egg blue and white -- which sits among hundreds of Airstreams and Miami Deco single-wides in the Sunset Colony Mobile Home Park in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Colbert claims that he's now on a sabbatical from spamming, but he's watching current events and weighing a return. During this interlude, he has agreed to help me learn how the avalanche of solicitations I receive winds up in my online mailbox every day. Who are these guys? Who hires them? How do they get legitimate e-mail addresses? And finally, can federal legislation currently under consideration actually stop them?
First off, Colbert doesn't think about spam the way I do (or, most probably, the way you do). He likes to call it ''bulk e-mailing,'' for starters. And he considers it just one of the many exciting new markets available on the Internet. He's the kind of guy who is always interrupting himself to tell you about some smart economic angle he has figured out, some new edge.
''These shorts are Dockers,'' he says, pointing at the clothes he has on. ''And I got them off eBay. Shirt? Tommy Hilfiger. EBay. Shoes? Nikes. EBay.''
Colbert and I dig around on the Internet until, under his direction, I find a piece of software that allows for mass e-mailing. These are common and legal, used legitimately by professional archaeologists, say, or chess enthusiasts to form an online group and conduct chats or exchange information.
Right away there's a problem. The software we've selected requires registration or payment. But Colbert says he once used this very piece of software, slightly altered, when he worked with some other spammers who live nearby. So he snatches his phone and calls a neighbor for support. A minute later, we are back in business. It turns out that an unusually large number of spammers live in this area, the stretch of beaches north of Miami that old-timers loosely call Boca and new-timers know as a staging ground for the smarmier characters in Carl Hiaasen's novels.
According to Steve Linford, who maintains the Rokso list, there's a good reason that so many spammers wind up on Spam Beach: ''Boca Raton is where they used to run those pump-and-dump investment scams and where the telemarketing sweatshops are.'' The phone scammers and infomercial wannabes of the 80's and 90's -- who themselves supplanted the land speculators who established Florida's earliest cities upon shifting sand and sinking swamps -- have been pushed aside by the new boys on the block, the bulk e-mailers of the Internet.
2.
I'm more worried about corporate spammers, who send "legitimate spam". But they're about to be history. After January 1, California's new spam law turns on, with criminal penalties and a private right of action. And you get to sue the advertiser, not just the sender.
How about one of his websites?
http://bowieltd.com/
Administrative Contact:
Colbert, Richard pcheaven2k@zwallet.com
2400 W Broward Blvd
Suite 523
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
US
954-327-0766
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Sigh. One of the many advantages of having a unified cell infrastructure, unlike the USA. Each provider has their own network, which means you need to buy a new phone if you switch. Heck, we still can't even port our number with us.
SPAM is a form of direct marketing, where the customers is approached by email.
BZZZZZZT! You're describing "spam", not the tasty pink processed meat product: I quote from Hormel:
Note that direct markting itself was never a problem itself, and it's much older than computers. The first forms of direct marketing can be traced back to the end of the 19th century.
And before spam came along, the marketer or the seller shouldered the cost of the advertising. They paid for their paper, and the postage, the shipping clerk that handled the mail, etc., etc. Spammers pay for none of that. They illegally access servers in Korea and China to spew their slime, infect computers world-wide with viruses that turn personal computers in spam relay stations, use free email accounts to inject their spew into the network... and the cost of this, in terms of bandwidth, server storage, and all the other reltaed systems and people needed to maintain them, is passed on to the unwilling recipients.
The main problem with SPAM is that it is undirected. Zillions of people getting zillions of email with offers they don't need...
No, the main problem with spam is that it's a theft of resources, not to mention fraud, harassment, violation of privacy, and violation of at least two dozen state's laws.
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
Richard D Colbert, (954) 484-9977, 1765 NW 39th Ct, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe =UTF-8&q=%22richard+colbert%22+bellsouth
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22richard+colbert% 22+florida&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Not according to Warren Burger, Chief Justice, SCOTUS, May 4, 1970:
Also includes a larege picture of the man himself.
You can tell Mozilla mail not to display remote images in mail and news. It's under privacy->images.
Yet another reason why Mozilla rules.
War is necrophilia.
Hey fuckwit moderators: this is not offtopic. It's from the spammer's own website mentioned in the article.
There really needs to be some sort of IQ test before mod points are given out. Really.
everything in moderation
And most of the time they will be polite about it because they are sending "Good Spam" they have some morals and will follow my request.
If they're sending spam, their morals have already sunk to the level required in order to send spam. Don't count on any of your requests being followed the way you'd like.
Unsolicited Bulk Email is theft of the recipient's time and resources to distribute your message. There is no "Good Spam". I would focus my energy to passing legislation that separates spammers from the Internet using a combination of iron bars and concrete.