Interview With a Spammer

Eh? by Garrett+Combs · 2003-09-27 04:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

"good spam vs. bad spam" Hrm... Is there such a thing?

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Insert witty Slashdot sig here.

Re:Eh? by jellomizer · 2003-09-27 05:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

Well in the article he states it this way.

Good Spam. With Proper from line and workable remove links that actually remove your list and not used to verify your address.

Bad Spam. With altered from addresses bounced from every open relay on the planet to hide it origin. Remove links that are broken or use it as a method of verification.

Although I think all Spam is bad. I would focus my energy to getting all Spammers to get the "Good Spam" type first. That is why I forward all my Spam to uce@ftc.gov. That way the Federal Trade Commission checks the legality of their Spam. Usually when it is "Bad Spam" the FTC will go after them. After forwarding all my Spam to use@ftc.gov after many years there has a been a decrease in Spam. When I first got my current email address I had 3 or 4 Spams a day. Now I get 1 or 2 a month. Plus I know at least one of the Major Spammers has gotten hit with the FTC. Which was the Married but Single site. Which was Bad Spam because they Hid their identity their remove was a bad false link. And bounced over a variety of open relays. After I heard that the FTC went after them their Spam magically stopped.

If it is "Good Spam" I can normally handle that much easier without much effort. I just hit my Bounce to Sender feature on my email client and then I send them back a standard bounce-back message saying that my address doesn't exist thus making them take me off the list to save their bandwidth. Or if they are really annoying me I find the contact of the site can call them up by telephone telling them to stop. 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.

So "Good Spam" is Spam that you can easily get off of, and often done by people and companies that don't realize the spam problem, or from Pointy Hair Bosses who don't think it is a problem because their Sysadmins did a good job to blocking them so when one or two gets in they think it is novel Idea.
"Bad Spam" has SCAM written all over it. Where it is just bad news all around.

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If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Re:Eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-27 11:17 · Score: 2, Insightful

Sorry, but the 'bad spammers' have made it impossible to trust that any 'good spam' exists. Nobody is willing to click on an 'unsubscribe' link anymore. (Everybody knows that clicking unsubscribe means 'send me more spam, pretty please'.)

Finally, confirmed. by Faust7 · 2003-09-27 04:59 · Score: 5, Insightful

When an "out of the office" auto-reply comes back on one e-mail message, Colbert says: "Oh, we love those. They confirm that the address is active."

This should put to rest any remaining doubts about whether or not "unsubscribing" from spam lists actually works.

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The coolest voice ever.

Spammers vs. Virus Engineers by ajensen · 2003-09-27 05:07 · Score: 2, Insightful

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.

I tend to rank these people just as low on the societal ladder as those who write virii. I understand the thrill and excitement of knowing that your work (albeit destructive) is affecting millions, but why can't these brilliant folks put that energy to use solving problems instead of creating more?

This is an honest question -- why do so many people choose to create destructive and malicious programs instead of harvesting the glory that can be had when a really good app is written? That's simply a mentality that I don't understand and perhaps never will.

Good grief.

Re:Spammers vs. Virus Engineers by lanswitch · 2003-09-27 05:23 · Score: 1, Insightful

I tend to rank these people just as low on the societal ladder as those who write virii.
You can argue about the damage that is done with spam. Sure, it will cost real bandwith and storage space and thus real money, but it's in a completely different league with the damage done by things like Welchia. Spam (with all it's side-effects that we all know and hate) is about making money. Virii are about destruction. Sending spam just means you are greedy and insensitive...
I am in no way defending spammers, but we need to keep things in perspective here.

"a second hard drive"? by way2trivial · 2003-09-27 05:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yes, the sent a reporter who refers to the computer itself as "the hard drive", Nice solid reporting.

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every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Oh. Crap. by CGP314 · 2003-09-27 05:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

More recently, spammers have figured out how to send unwanted text messages to cellphones

I've never endorsed vigilante action against spammers, but the instant I get a text message on my phone from a Nigerian businessman, I'm changing my mind. With my computer, I can run programs like popfile to stop the spam, but with a cell phone, there is nothing I can do.

An Address ;) by Ceadda · 2003-09-27 05:10 · Score: 2, Insightful

Thought about this for about 30 seconds, checked, and, what do you know :) I bet if enough of us had a bit of fun signing up catalogs and free brochures, and phone calls for more information to. Richard Colbert. Sunset Colony MH Park 2400 W Broward Blvd Fort Lauderdale 954-583-8602 The mobile home park might get pissed and kick him out? This is the park's address and phone, not his. ;) so extra annoying for them :)

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*There's Klingons on the starboard bow, scrape em off Jim!*

spam would stop tomorrow if... by professorhojo · 2003-09-27 05:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

...people stopped buying their crap.

i mean -- who the HELL buys penis enlargements, weight loss drugs and college diplomas from these sites? obviously -- too many of us.

prof.

Compare two statements.... by John+Seminal · 2003-09-27 05:14 · Score: 3, Insightful

''That's not fraud,'' he said. ''If it was fraud, the company wouldn't make any money.'' When I tried to pursue this suddenly slippery definition of fraud, he quickly added, defensively, ''The only sex product I sell is the penis-enlargement pill.''

and...

Back in Colbert's mobile home, I ask my spammer guru if he is feeling nervous, now that Congress is in the market for a few high-profile public hangings. Doesn't he fear that Orson Swindle might soon have him in an orange jumpsuit and shackles, doing a prime-time perp walk? ''Congress is full of idiots,'' he notes succinctly. Colbert says he doesn't believe that a strategy of going after a few kingpins will accomplish anything. Politicians will gain some publicity, but in the process, he argues, they will drive smaller operators further underground. ''Spammers will just use even more deceptive practices to keep from getting shut down,'' he says.

This guy is an idiot. That is the problem with the USA, anyone will do anything for money. There is no ethics at all. It is all self justificating.

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Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."

Re: Priceless by hendridm · 2003-09-27 05:24 · Score: 2, Insightful

2. Read the page. It has instructions on how to make it work.
3. The easiest way to get it to work would be to save the page source to your computer and open the local copy. Voila! No more page referral

Or you could just sign up for an account so you don't have to go through that rigamarole each time. :D

Re:Auto-reply by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-27 05:26 · Score: 1, Insightful

This sucks, for a spammer to take a tool that we use for work, and find a way to misuse it.

You mean like, say, email?

Is there any way to set auto-reply's to only send notices to emails on a specific domain, and not respond to any others?

Using what method to do auto replies? Procmail? Yes of course. Outlook? Who knows?

Distributive justice by wytcld · 2003-09-27 05:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

But the distributive-justice approach is all but dead in Congress, at least in part because of the Republicans' deep antipathy for trial lawyers.

If we empowered individuals to sue spammers, then trial lawyers would make money, so it is bad. Ours is a system of laws, but setting up laws so that individuals can hire lawyers to protect their health, property or privacy is bad, because any lawyer who would profit by helping individuals in those causes is bad. Laws should only provide opportunities for corporations and corporate lawyers, never for individuals and the guns-for-hire they bring to the arena.

Republicans ... beloved of Libertarians ... why?

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"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton

Re:Why I love the times by John+Miles · 2003-09-27 06:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

C'mon...just because the reporter isn't up to snuff on computers, doesn't mean they can't write. I hear this all the time from our users at work. It's almost accepted among the non-tech folk.

So what you're saying is that I'm supposed to decide what companies to invest in, whether or not to support various wars, which of several political candidates to vote for, and whether to take an umbrella to work tomorrow based on journalism of this quality?

Here's a question for the NYT apologists: if their reporters don't give a shit about accuracy in matters you can call them on, what makes you think their reporting is worth anything on other, more important topics?

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Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.

Re:What a life! by rerunn · 2003-09-27 06:16 · Score: 2, Insightful

Link is dead.

Here is his Ebay feedback pack. He likes dishes?

Here is his Ebay About Me page.

Who is Bowie LTD?
Bowie LTD is a Partnership founded by Richard A. Barboza and Richard D. Colbert in March 2003. Our Federal EIN is 55-0826011. Any further information you may require on our Company or its Partners can be obtained by emailing sales@bowieltd.com. You may also visit our website @ http://www.bowieltd.com/.

Re:I've gotta hand it to this guy... by JayBlalock · 2003-09-27 06:29 · Score: 1, Insightful

think they have some mysterious "right" to (ab)use their intended recipient's E-mail boxes.

Unfortunately, THEY DO. It's called Free Speech. Bill of Rights, at the top.

I hate spammers too, I really do, but which is worse - a few more junk mails, or yet another restriction set up on our supposedly unrestricted speech? One which, I would add, would simply cause spamming to move overseas entirely and continued undeterred - while we still have a bit less freedom in the name of accomplishing nothing.

Think carefully before firing off the knee-jerk flame, thanks.

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Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.

RE: Out of Office auto-replies by King_TJ · 2003-09-27 07:04 · Score: 2, Insightful

Actually, I've felt that the "Out of Office" auto-reply is a bit of a security risk anyway, when it's used anyplace besides within the company's internal network.

This is just one more example of why it's not necessarily a good idea to use it.

My original concern was with advertising to the world that you're not at work. Granted, it's common practice to record this type of message on your corporate voice mail system - but that's not quite the same thing. People have to know enough about you to know your company's phone number and get to your private extension to hear it.

The idea of any random spammer finding out that I'm away on vacation until date X/Y strikes me as a bad idea. That's like making public announcements to would-be hackers, saying "Hey, hack in using my account! I won't even notice for 2 more weeks!"

Re:I've gotta hand it to this guy... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-27 07:31 · Score: 1, Insightful

the first amendament issue with the DNC list is a smoke screen. the list is the equivalent of a 'private property - do not call' sign and you should have the right to sue tresspassers, just as you can do with land property. Or you want to say that some types of privacy are not as private as others?

besides, on your own words, unwanted advertisements are anything BUT Free Speech until you order them to stop. that's what the list does - ORDER THEM TO STOP. they no longer are free speech. remember that the issue was whether FTC has the right to maintain the list, not whether the list was or not constitutional.

Re:All I want to know is. . . by Blkdeath · 2003-09-27 08:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Hope he really really likes pepperoni.

Nice sentiment and all, but as someone who's worked both for pizza places and as a delivery driver I ask you; please don't. It costs the restaurant money in wasted food and preparation time, costs the delivery driver time and gas to make a round-trip for nothing, and is generally a Very Bad Idea.

If you want to annoy the man, please find a means of doing so that won't affect the pocketbooks of innocents.

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BD Phone Home!

Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.

Re:All I want to know is. . . by eugene+ts+wong · 2003-09-27 09:50 · Score: 2, Insightful

It costs the restaurant money in wasted food and preparation time, costs the delivery driver time and gas to make a round-trip for nothing, and is generally a Very Bad Idea.

I agree.

It's bad for the environment.

It's also like sending spam to the pizza makers. After all, you'd be offering them a money making opportunity, which would be a bloody lie.

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testing out my trending skills

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